Paul O'Donovan, Fintan McCarthy and the beauty of inevitability

Musings about flagpoles were the partial order of the day on Thursday after leaving Paris 2024's Vaires-sur-Marne venue in the wake of bronze medal glory delivered by men's double sculls rowers Philip Doyle and Daire Lynch.

Returning 24 hours later for the final instalment in rowing's running order for Team Ireland, there was an air of expectation that the tricolour would be hoisted again, but this time on the central pole.

Three finals were at stake for the Irish on the lake, with defending Olympic men's lightweight double sculls champions Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy flanked by the finals for the men's pair and the women's lightweight double sculls.

While the respective duos of Ross Corrigan and Nathan Timoney, and Margaret Cremen and Aoife Casey did not ultimately get the medals they craved, the fact that Team Ireland had four crews involved in A finals during Paris 2024 meant they doubled the tally from an already successful Tokyo 2020.

But it was the gold medal winners from three years ago who were in the spotlight and there was a real sense that O'Donovan and McCarthy would deliver.

Never in doubt? Not if you ask O'Donovan. Just after he and McCarthy made history by winning a second Olympic gold in succession this morning and individually becoming the first Irish athlete to medal at three Games in succession, the Corkman leaned on an underdog status that had been a common refrain in his post-race interviews here.

"It was always in doubt for everyone else. No one believed we could do it coming into this competition," he told RTÉ Sport's Clare MacNamara barely a minute after he and McCarthy exited the boat and strode up the path to the mixed zone.

The full interview with our history-making rowers

Two and a half