Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy cruise through their heat at World Rowing Championships

Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy cruised through their heat of the lightweight men’s double sculls on the opening day of the World Rowing Championships in Belgrade.

With near perfect conditions at the Ada Ciganlija regatta course on Sava Lake, in the heart of the Serbian capital, O’Donovan and McCarthy didn’t hang around either, hitting the front early on and never looking back.

With four of the five-boat line up progressing to the quarter-finals there was room to play with too, only the Skibbereen pair didn’t need it, winning in 6:15.40, just over four seconds up on the New Zealand crew.

It was their first race since the World Cup III in Lucerne in July, where they were narrowly beaten on the line by the French double, by .09, their first loss since 2019. However all indications so far are they’re back to their best, after their four-week training camp in Banyoles, Catalonia. They are aiming for a hat-trick of World Championship titles together.

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Earlier, Siobhán McCrohan of Tribesmen RC, a recent World Cup III silver medallist, booked her place straight into the semi-finals of the women’s lightweight scull, finishing second behind Romania’s Gianna Van Groningen.

The top-two progressed straight, the 36-year-old McCrohan taking an early lead, before Van Groningen took the win in 7:35.25, the Irish rower 4.30 seconds back.

Groningen finished sixth at the Tokyo Olympics in the lightweight double and also raced in the Romanian eight that won bronze at World Cup III.

An impressive race from the Enniskillen duo of Nathan Timoney and Ross Corrigan sent them straight through to the men’s pair quarter-finals. Hitting a low of 40 strokes per minute in the first 500m Ireland went out hard, placing themselves in the top two with 2022 World silver medallists Spain.

Through the middle of the race Timoney and Corrigan challenged Spain, moving into the lead of the race. It was only in the last sprint that Spain picked up their boat speed and came through, Ireland beating them by just 1.19 seconds.

Philip Doyle and Daire Lynch are also into the men’s doubles quarter-finals with a second-place finish in their heat. It was the American double that led from the start but there was only just over a second separating the top four crews to the first marker. Doyle and Lynch sat in third position until they made their move on the French double coming into the final 400 metres.

For Jake McCarthy, twin brother of Fintan, next up will be the repechage of the lightweight men’s scull, after he finished fifth in his heat, the first of five. The first four all progressed straight, McCarthy fifth behind Algeria’s Sid Ali Boudina, who took the win in 6:55.00, the Skibbereen rower finishing in 7:09.13.