Irish brothers share winning strategy for Olympic final

Ireland has won its first medal at the Rio Olympics.

Powering to silver medal glory in the men’s lightweight double sculls, the European Championship winners held off a fierce Norwegian challenge by just 0.16 seconds.

Cork Institute of Technology has congratulated the West Cork brotherson their success.

The pair got their regatta under way by winning their heat, before a rapid finish put them through to the final in third.

Well done to both Gary and Paul, no doubt there’ll be plenty of celebrating in Cork tonight!

The brothers, who have won fans over with their lighthearted interview style, joked that they weren’t keen to leave Rio after Irish boxer Mick Conlan handed them some extra motivation.

Gary was, earlier this year, presented with CITs International Achievement Award at the Annual Sports Awards.

Ireland’s Sinead Jennings and Claire Lambe became the country’s first female crew to reach an Olympic rowing final on Friday.

“I’m a bit exhausted and the legs are like jelly but we got to do a bit of celebrating and do the podium thing”, Paul began.

They were still in fourth spot at the half way mark but as they had done in the semi-final, they upped the ante at the business end of the racing and were consistently travelling faster than any of the other two boats.

But while they will be overshadowed now on a famous day in the annals of Irish sport, it should be remembered that they overachieved in making the final and have placed themselves in elite company by doing so.