Paris 2024: Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy storm into final, Cremen and Casey, Corrigan and Timoney also into medal races

Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy remain on course for back-to-back Olympic gold medals after they stormed to victory in their men's lightweight double sculls semi-final.

In what was a good morning for the Irish at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, Margaret Cremen and Aoife Casey are through to the women's lightweight final, while Ross Corrigan and Nathan Timoney will contest the medal race in the men's pair.

After hitting the front some 350 metres in, O'Donovan and McCarthy were never in danger thereafter.

At halfway, the pair had a half-a-boat advantage and pulled further clear of Switzerland in the third quarter, with that lead extending to a one-length lead with 500 to go.

The winning time was 6:21.88 - the fastest across both semi-finals - with the Swiss coming home in second and Czechia pipping France to take third and the remaining berth in Friday's final.

The Irish pair will go into that as favourites, despite playing down their chances after their win in the heats, and O'Donovan was in a similarly mischievous mood after their semi-final victory.

"That was a big, big upset so it was," the 30-year-old told RTÉ Sport.

"The Swiss are number-two ranked, way above us, fastest time of the heat so we're happy to be able to put out that performance.

"All year we've been throwing the kitchen sink at them and couldn't get ahead of them. They've had an answer to us every single time we've raced this year, but not today and we're hoping Friday we'll be able to produce the goods again."

McCarthy believes the pair are hitting their peak at the right time.

"We're feeling strong, looking strong," he said. "We had a record today, the shortest time ever we've spent on the water for a race, so we're always improving.

"Conditions play a