Rowing has produced Ireland's first medal of the Tokyo Olympics after the women's four claimed bronze at the Sea Forest Waterway this morning.
The four - Aifric Keogh, Eimear Lambe, Emily Hegarty and Fiona Murtagh - powered through in the second half of the race to beat Great Britain for third, behind gold medallists Australia and the Netherlands, who were the favourites.
The Irish crew signalled their intentions in their semi-final when they were just pipped by the Australians for first place. On this occasion, the Aussies raced to a new Olympic best time of 6:15.37, with their Dutch rivals just .36 of a second behind.
Behind them, Ireland got off to a steady start but found themselves behind China and GB at the 500m mark.
But gradually the Irish quartet reeled both in - China first, and then GB, and their medal looked assured several hundred metres from the finish.
Ireland finished in a time of 6:20.46, with GB fourth in 6:25.13.
Gold medal favourites Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy will compete in their lightweight double sculls semi-final at 3.30am Irish time.
