SKIBBEREEN rower Emily Hegarty (22) and the Ireland women's four crew have won a brilliant bronze medal at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Hegarty and her team-mates - Fiona Murtagh, Eimear Lambe and Aifric Keogh - produced a stunning performance in the early hours of Wednesday morning to win Ireland's first medal at these Games, and just the country's second-ever Olympic rowing medal.
Fourth after 500 metres and fifth at the halfway point in this A final, the Irish boat turned on the power in the second half of the race to pass out both China and Great Britain as they stormed into second place, with both Australia and The Netherlands out in front.
By the end, Australia (6:15.37) just edged out The Netherlands (6:15.71) for gold, and there in third place was the fast-moving Irish boat (6:20.46) ahead of Great Britain, China and Poland.
Relive the magic as @skibbrowing's Emily Hegarty and the Irish women’s four have won a bronze medal at the Olympics in Tokyo.
Just Ireland's second-ever Olympic rowing medal and Skibb rowers in both boats! pic.twitter.com/JaUdSvQ15C— Kieran McCarthy (@KieranMcC_SS) July 28, 2021
This is an incredible result for the Irish four of Hegarty, Murtagh, Lambe and Keogh who qualified for the Olympics at the final Olympic qualification regatta in Lucerne in May.
Get to know our Olympic medallist Emily Hegarty here.
