Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy claim gold at European Rowing Championships

Fintan McCarthy and Paul O'Donovan won another gold medal for Ireland today.

They finished first this morning in the Lightweight Men's Double Sculls final at the European Rowing Championships in Munich.

The Skibbereen natives came home ahead of Italy and Switzerland to retain their title and go back-to-back.

O'Donovan said: “I don’t think you’re ever comfortable, really, in a race like that. You’re on the edge, hanging on. We were still working hard. Maybe it looked like we gave a big dig at the end, but we were digging and maintaining speed and the others were falling off a bit but Fintan has been going really well all year. He stepped up again this year and I could feel that behind me, he was driving things along and it made a big difference.

“Fintan said something around 500m in and we kind of gathered it together and steadied the ship and it was moving well from there on out until we got home. There’s no need to say much, we know what the story is. You can feel what the other person is doing, so it’s grand.”

Lydia Heaphy and Margaret Cremen just missed out on a medal in the women's version of the same event - they were just pipped by Italy at the line to come fourth.

Elsewhere, Steven McGowan and Katie O'Brien came fourth in the Mixed Double Sculls A Final while Aoife Casey also came fourth in the Lightweight Women's Single Sculls A final.