Olympics: Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy win gold in double sculls

Skibbereen's Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy have won gold for Ireland in the men's double sculls.

O’Donovan of UCC Rowing Club and Fintan McCarthy of Skibbereen Rowing Club made history at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, where the pair won Ireland’s first ever rowing gold medal in the Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls A Final, and now they have added another gold medal.

O’Donovan and McCarthy were commanding in their semi-final earlier in the week, hitting the front before halfway and controlling the race from there.

The pair had qualified with the fastest time, but trailed Greece and Italy crews in the early stages.

But they eased past them before halfway and kept pushing to move away over the last 500 metres.

McCarthy and O’Donovan crossed the finishing line in six minutes 10.99 seconds, over two seconds clear of silver medallists Italy with Greece taking bronze.

O’Donovan said: “It was always in doubt for everyone else, no one believed we could do it coming into this competition and against all the odds we stuck with it, trained hard.”

McCarthy added: “(Gold) was always the aim for sure. We said early in the week we had a rocky enough season, well I did. Paul is obviously as consistent as hell through the whole year…

“I was trying to keep under wraps the nerves and the doubts but coming out for the final there were no nerves. We had some really good rounds, I really felt like we were back at our best for this race.”

Also competing today in the women’s lightweight double sculls A Final is another Cork two-time Olympic rowing duo, consisting of Aoife Casey and Margaret Cremen of UCC Rowing Club. - Additional reporting from Press Association