As you might have guessed, Gary and Paul O'Donovan weren't out on the town until 2am the night before they won world gold.
AS you might have guessed, Gary and Paul O’Donovan weren’t out on the town until 2am the night before they won world gold.
They were tucked up in bed – but never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
The serial jokers were up to their usual tricks when chatting to RTÉ moments after they won the men’s lightweight double sculls final.
The Norwegians had to replace Kristoffer Brun who was struck down with a fever – but the Lisheen brothers offered up their alternative view of events.
‘It was an awful catastrophe for the poor Norwegians, one of them got sick and they had to make a substitution last night,’ Gary told RTÉ before Paul jumped in to add legs to the story.
‘We were out on the town with them and said, “you know, big day tomorrow, we need to be on form”. We headed away early, about 2am. We met the Norwegians on the way in and they said by 3am Kristoffer was buckled and it was best to make the substitution then early this morning. He was still hungover.’
They won gold on the water and they’d win gold for plamásing, as Gary filled The Southern Star in on how the night before the world final unfolded.
‘I think it goes without saying where we were at two o’clock in the morning before the world championship final! We were at home in bed,’ Gary laughed.
‘We went out for dinner with the Norwegian lads on Saturday evening and we showed them the clip of Paul saying what he did, and they were in tears laughing at it. They thought it was the funniest thing they ever saw. Kristoffer had been a bit unwell going into the regatta and I think he picked up a gastro bug during it. That’s how it goes, these things happen. I missed the worlds last year when I wasn’t feeling the best.’
‘They were really gracious, they couldn’t be more happy for us.’
