Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy retain Gold in lightweight double sculls

Men’s lightweight double sculls

Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy retained their Olympic title with a dominant victory in the final of the men’s lightweight double sculls at Paris 2024.

The duo finished in a time of 6:10.99 to seal back-to-back golds.

It’s an Irish record third Olympics in a row that O’Donovan has won a medal after silver with his brother Gary at Rio 2016 and gold with McCarthy at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games.

O’Donovan and McCarthy also become the first Irish athletes to win golds at successive Games since Pat O’Callaghan in the men’s hammer throw at the 1928 and 1932 Olympics.

It also marks a fifth medal won or secured at Paris 2024, following gold for Daniel Wiffen, bronzes for fellow swimmer Mona McSharry and for men’s double sculls rowers Philip Doyle and Daire Lynch, with boxer Kellie Harrington having secured at least a bronze medal in the women’s 60kg division.

Starting in lane three, O’Donovan and McCarthy were third behind Greece and Italy after the first 400m as they paced themselves.

The Cork duo began making moves with 1300m to go, overtaking Italy and closing to within 1.2 seconds of the Greece crew.

O’Donovan and McCarthy took the lead just past halfway, rowing consistently at 40 strokes a minute.

They led by 0.98 with 500m remaining and eased to victory from there, two seconds clear of silver medallists Italy, with the Greeks comfortably taking bronze ahead of Switzerland.

Earlier, Ross Corrigan and Nathan Timoney finished sixth in the final of the men’s pair, while Aifric Keogh and Fiona Murtagh finished second in the B final of the women’s pair.