Rowing for gold
O’donovans in high spirits after leaving rivals trailing with incredible double sculls victory
THE O’donovan brothers were the toast of Ireland last night after scooping gold at the World Rowing Championships.
Paul, 24, and 25-year-old Gary made waves as they cruised home ahead of their rivals in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
The brothers claimed their amazing victory in the lightweight men’s double sculls was down to the “best strokes we ever pulled in our lives”.
And it appears they pulled another stroke after a night out on the town on Friday. The pair, who won individual gold in the 2017 championships, revealed their Norwegian rivals were forced to make a substitution after a boozy session.
Speaking after the win, Gary said: “It was an awful catastrophe for the poor Norwegians because one of them got sick. They had to make a substitution late last night.”
Paul added: “We were out on the town with them and we said, ‘Sure we’ve a big day tomorrow, we need to be on form’, so we headed home early around 2 o’clock. “We met the Norwegians on the way in and they said that by 3am Kristoffer [Brun] was buckled and it was best to make the substitution then early this morning. He was still hungover.” Gary admitted the duo, who train with the Skibbereen Rowing Club in their native Cork, have had their eyes on the world top spot all season. He said: “We planned to win it all year. We’ve been trying hard to win every race and we said the most important one would be the world championship final this year.