Back-to-back third-place finishes mean rowers Ross Corrigan and Nathan Timoney will go to the Men’s Pair Olympic A final on Friday morning.

The Fermanagh duo fought off New Zealand’s advances on Wednesday morning in their semi-final action in Paris to book their place in Friday’s race with an automatic position.

The achievement makes them the first Men’s Pair (M2-) to make an Olympic final in Irish history (top 6), after Pat Gannon and Willie Ryan placed seventh at the 1980 Games in Moscow.

On Sunday morning, television screens flickered on all around the county, crowds gathered down by the water at Portora and family and friends congregated at Roches Bar in Ross’ hometown of Kinawley to cheer on the Erne Olympians.

Ireland were faced up against Spain, Switzerland, the USA and New Zealand in their heat.

After a slow start that saw the Kiwis stretch out in front, in the first 500m, Ross and Nathan eventually closed the gap but trailed by half a boat heading into the final 500m until Nathan had a quick glance around and called for his partner to up the pace with a semi-final spot in the balance.

The two hastened towards the finish line and with USA trailing in last, all of a sudden, it became a photo finish between the other four boats as the entirety of Fermanagh held their breath.

0.43 seconds separated the four nations as Spain took first place, with New Zealand in second and, after a nervous wait, Ireland were judged to have pipped the Swiss by 0.02 seconds to confirm a place in Tuesday’s semi.

The Men’s Pair (M2-) of 23-year-old Nathan Timoney and 25-year-old Ross Corrigan were first of the three Irish rowing crews to advance taking third in their semi-final. 

Coming off the start line with the highest rate, Ireland had the best start of the six, placing themselves in the leading pack. The New Zealand pair; Tokyo gold medallists in the Men’s Eight, made a charge at Timoney and Corrigan coming into the final quarter of the race, but the Fermanagh duo went with them and held them off to the line.

Finishing third behind the reigning World Champions Great Britain, and Romania; the current European silver medallists, Ireland held their own right to the line finishing just over half a second behind the leaders.

Speaking afterwards Timoney; who hails from Fermanagh, as does Corrigan said: “That was epic, epic racing! Definitely a replication from last year’s World Champs final. I think it was necessary. We definitely had to go out a little harder than we did in the heats . A lesson learnt. We knew we’d definitely suffered for it a little bit for it in the second half and obviously in the last 250m the Kiwis were coming back at us quite swiftly, kudos to them but to be in front, you’re in control of the race and if we could see them coming we could kind of react. I think we did that pretty well. We were just holding on for dear life in the last 150.

“In the middle of it it’s hard to know sometimes where you are. The way I race is I try to be as internal as possible. Sometimes Ross would make the call and let me know where we are but I like to be internal and certainly, in the last 250 you realise you’re in for a dog-fight and that’s where the body wakes up and you’re like ‘right, let’s make a move.’”

Corrigan, whose cousin, golfer Leona Maguire, is also on the Irish team, added: “We had a plan up until 1500m and then we were leaving it in God’s hands (laughs). We knew we’d move when we needed to move and I called it a bit earlier today, in the last 300 the Kiwis were coming back at us but we knew in the heat that we had enough to come back at them so we knew we could keep pushing on and then the last 100 you’re just holding on and trying not to slow the boat down more than anything. Just make no mistakes!”

Fermanagh’s spectators will do it all over again tomorrow morning as they eagerly await the conclusion of the two lad's journey in Paris.