Morten Espersen, the high performance director of Rowing Ireland, has resigned.

The Dane, 65, led the team at Rio de Janeiro in 2016 which took the first Irish Olympic rowing medal. The Ireland lightweight double of Paul and Gary O’Donovan took silver and the women’s lightweight double also reached an A Final.

Espersen came into the Ireland system in 2012 having been a leading light in the successful Denmark system: their rowers won medals at five successive Olympics and it was the top-performing sport at the games for Denmark.

In Ireland, Espersen put in place a a trialling system which saw crews formed and training together well in advance of the competitive season. His legacy will also include the formation of a big coaching group which should ensure the transition to a new leader will be smoother than in 2008 and 2012.

Espersen is in Vancouver in Canada for the World Coaches’ Conference and informed Rowing Ireland in an email from there.

The chief executive of Rowing Ireland, Hamish Adams, said: “On behalf of the entire board and staff I wish Morten well in the next phase of his professional and personal life and would like to personally thank him for his huge contribution to rowing in Ireland over the last four years.

“Morten will be working closely with us for the next three months to ensure our high performance programme continues to go from strength to strength.”