Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy secure their third World Championship title in Belgrade

That old familiar dominance utterly restored, Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy have scored a hat-trick of World Championships titles in the lightweight double sculls, clearly still the boat to beat come the Paris Olympics next summer.

The manner of victory in Belgrade on Saturday afternoon was perfectly familiar too, O’Donovan and McCarthy content to sit back while the other five crews scrambled to get a break on them.

Old rivals Jan Schaeuble and Raphaël Ahumada Ireland from Switzerland did manage to open up some small daylight in the first 750m, the Ireland crew back in fourth, before they promptly turned on the grace and power. Now the fastest boat on the water, their move was already decisive by 500m to go, the Skibbereen pair winning by just under a boat length in 6:32.09, ahead of the Swiss (6:34.34) and Italy (6:34.77).

Adding to their Olympic and European titles, it restores their winning record too after they were beaten for the first time since 2019 at the World Cup III in Lucerne in July, by the French, who didn’t advance past the quarter-finals here.

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Their performance also rounded off another positive day for the Irish team at the Ada Ciganlija regatta course on Sava Lake, in the heart of the Serbian capital, the penultimate session blessed by perfect conditions.

The men’s pair of Nathan Timoney and Ross Corrigan, fast making a name for themselves at this level, very nearly produced one of the upsets of the entire regatta when they broke for gold early on.

Undaunted by the quality of crews around them, the Enniskillen pair were still in front at the 1,000m mark, with the Swiss and British pair in hot pursuit, clearly realising they had a serious race on their hands.

The Swiss pair of Roman Roeoesli and Andrin Gullich did get ahead going into the last 500, winning in 6:51.09, before an exceptional sprint by the British just edged out the Irish to third spot, 6:53.46 to 6:54.22.

Still a bronze medal in their first World Championship, coupled with Olympic qualification, certainly marks exciting progress, Corrigan only turning 23 earlier this week.

There was joy and relief too for the lightweight women’s double of Margaret Cremen and Aoife Casey, who after missing out on their A final, still had the chance to qualify their boat for Paris if they could win their B Final. Which is exactly what that did, first home in a thrilling race ahead of Poland and Italy, after long-term leaders France missed an oar late on, putting them out on contention.

The women’s pair of Fiona Murtagh and Aifric Keogh, part of the bronze-medal winning four in Tokyo, found the pace a little too hard to handle in their final, the Dutch crew utterly dominant ahead of Australia and Romania, still the Irish did well to finish fourth, with the promise of more to come there.

The new women’s four of Eimear Lambe, Sanita Puspure, Imogen Magner, and Natalie Long also needed to win their B Final to make Paris at this juncture, although they had to settle for third, just over three seconds down on New Zealand, who are now Paris bound.

Katie O’Brien and Steven McGowan, already qualified the Para-2 mixed double at next year’s Paralympics after winning their semi-final, finished fifth, the same placing as last year.

After Siobhán McCrohan’s fairytale gold in the women’s lightweight single sculls, unfortunately not an Olympic event, Ireland’s medal tally is now up to three, with the men’s double Philip Doyle and Daire Lynch, plus the women’s double of Alison Bergin and Zoe Hyde, certainly going into their final on Sunday hopeful of a medal.

There are still a couple of chances next year, the last being the final Olympic Qualification Regatta in Lucerne, on May 19th-21st.