Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy ease through Worlds heat

Lightweight men's double Olympic champions Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy continued their winning ways on the opening day of the World Rowing Championships in Racice, Czech Republic.

Four of the six Irish crews in action progressed to their respective quarter-finals on a day where a strong tailwind led to tricky conditions for racing, but they are expected to improve for the remainder of the week.

O’Donovan and McCarthy were composed throughout to take their heat in a time of 6:15.11.

Hosts Czech Republic set the early pace and led the rest of the field through the 1000m mark, but shortly after the Irish pair eased past and move into Wednesday morning’s quarter-final with minimal fuss.

Phil Doyle and Konan Pazzaia enjoyed their first competitive runout in the men’s double and will be happy to have achieved the target of quarter-final qualification.

The pair made a fine start, leading the group to the first 500m. As the race unfolded, the Lithuanian double pushed ahead, but both crews continued to break away from the rest of the field.

Doyle and Pazzaia had to settle for second, though they had 24 seconds to spare over third-placed Serbia.

Brian Colsh was first to take to the water this morning in the men’s single. He held third position throughout to advance to Wednesday morning’s quarter-final.

Fourth place was enough to seal Hugh Moore’s passage into the quarters of the lightweight men’s scull.

In the lightweight women’s scull, Lydia Heaphy put in an impressive performance to finish 0.74 behind Iran’s Nazanin Malaei and claim second place.

Heaphy upped her rate to over 40 strokes per minute towards the finish, but with only one sculler progressing straight into the A/B Semi, she is into the repechage.

Alison Bergin made her