Still the undisputed best in the world, moving further into a class of their own it seems, Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy have won another gold medal in the lightweight double sculls at the climax of the World Rowing Championships.
It’s a fifth World title in all for O’Donovan, now one of most decorated sports people in Ireland, everything about their latest victory suggesting there is plenty more to come.
They were among the Irish final crews taking on the 2,000 metres of water at the Labe Arena in Račice on the outskirts of Prague, and true to form held back early on, sitting in sixth after the opening 500 metres, after the Italian crew raced into an early lead.
Unbothered, O’Donovan and McCarthy then moved from sixth to first in the second quarter of the race, and once they got their bow in front it was game over. They won by over a clear boat length in 6:16.11, the Italian crew winning silver just under three seconds back, with the Ukrainian crew winning bronze of the Swiss.
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With an Olympic gold and Olympic silver already to his name, O’Donovan now has five World Championship titles (two in the lightweight singles), three European Championship gold and two silver.
Margaret Cremen and Aoife Casey earlier won a magnificent battle for the bronze medal in the women’s lightweight doubles sculls. Victory ultimately went to the well-fancied British crew of Emily Craig and Imogen Grant, who won gold ahead of the USA, finishing in 6:54.78, and then came Cremen and Casey in third, both aged 23 and winning their first World Championship medals.
They were sitting in third ahead of the French crew at the 1,000m mark, before the French got their bow in front, and held on to that advantage at the 1,500m mark.
However, the Irish then cranked up their strike in the last quarter,
Cremen in the stroke seat, Casey in the bow, the duo pulled clear into third by the line, just over two seconds ahead of French, 7:00.68 to 7:02.98.
Hopes for a third Irish medal on a potentially super Saturday never materialised, the women’s four, reunited again after their Olympic bronze medal win in Tokyo last summer, surprisingly struggling to go with the pace in their final, and in truth were never in contention.
In qualification, at least, they looked well capable of making the podium, the quartet of Emily Hegarty, Fiona Murtagh, Eimear Lambe and Aifric Keogh briefly moving into fifth in the third quarter of the race, then faded again to sixth, victory there going to the dominant British crew ahead of the Netherlands and Australia, rediscovering their best form after struggling in qualification to take the bronze.
Earlier, Katie O’Brien was back on the water, 24 hours after winning gold in the Para women’s single sculls, this time joining Steven McGowen in the final of the Para mixed doubles.
In their debut senior season, the Irish duo had already done well to make the final, finishing up in fifth place, the gold medal going to Ukraine, ahead of Poland and France, that result for the Irish crew certainly auguring well for the Paris Paralympics now less than two years away.
In the B Final of the women’s pair, Natalie Long and Tara Hanlon finished second behind the local Czech crew, placing them eighth best overall, while in the B Final of the men’s four were just .08 of a second behind the German crew, the Irish crew of John Kearney, Ross Corrigan, Nathan Timoney and Jack Dorney all making their senior debuts in Račice, and clearly a boat on the rise.
On Sunday (12.54), Zoe Hyde and Sanita Puspure round off the Irish interest in the women’s double sculls, the now 40-year-old Puspure seemingly back to her best, as they qualified second in their semi-final to the Dutch crew. There’s clearly a medal there for the taking, and the last to be shown off, for now.
