Irish rowers Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy made it to the lightweight double sculls final in Paris on Wednesday with an impressive semi-final win.
The Corkmen powered to victory, beating the highly regarded Switzerland pair by almost three seconds.
While the pair have won three world golds and two European golds as well as gold in Tokyo, 2024 has not been easy.
Due to McCarthy being injured, the pair found themselves bumped down the seedings a little, with Italy and Switzerland ahead.
"The Little Davids again, that was a big, big upset" - Paul O'Donovan will not be shaken in his belief that he and Fintan McCarthy are the underdogs after they won their men's lightweight semi-final #RTEsport #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/sPFewoSRzJ
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) July 31, 2024
And this has already proved to be an issue for O’Donovan who raised it in an interview earlier this week.
He mentioned it again on Wednesday, as he doubled down on his ‘David v Goliath’ analogy.
He joked earlier in the week that the pair were “the little Davids of this world going up against the Goliaths” and this time around he said: "Oh the little Davids again, that was a big, big upset, so it was.
"The Swiss are number two ranked, way above us, fastest time in the heat. We’re happy to be able to put out that performance.
"All year we’ve been throwing the kitchen sink at them and just couldn’t get ahead of them. They’ve had an answer to us every single time we’ve raced this year but not today.
"We’re hoping Friday we’ll be able to produce the goods again."
McCarthy also mentioned that they’d set a record for the shortest amount of time they’ve ever spent on the water for a race.
* This article was originally published on Extra.ie.
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