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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Vincent Whelan

Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy once again crowned European rowing champs

Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy added another European gold to their already incredible haul of medals this morning in Munich.

As is their trademark, the Cork duo finished like a train in the lightweight men’s double sculls final to ensure another clear-cut victory in a time of 6:34.72 over the 2000m race.

While it's become expected of them, we shouldn't take for granted just how brilliant they are at their craft.

READ MORE: Ciara Mageean reveals how Covid badly affected her prior to winning Commonwealth silver

They are the Olympic and world champions as well now being two-time European top dogs with Paul having also won the title a third time back in 2016 when brother Gary was in the boat with him.

Italian pair Pietro Ruta and Stefano Oppo took silver in a relatively distant second place of 6:38.40.

The gap to third then was much closer as the Swiss boat of Jan Schaeuble and Raphael Ahumada were pipped into the bronze medal spot at 6:39.37.

O'Donovan and McCarthy will now continue to be red-hot favourites going into next month's World Championships in the Czech Republic.

This latest success comes a day after the women's four secured silver medals. The team of Tara Hanlon, Aifric Keogh, Eimear Lambe and Natalie Long led in the early going but were overtaken by Great Britain.

However, they held off the challenge of Romania down the home stretch to finish in second with a 0.84 margin to spare.

And there were nearly a few other Irish medals on Sunday too as Aoife Casey wound up in fourth place in the lightweight women's single sculls 'A final, as did Steven McGowan and Katie O'Brien in the mixed double sculls 'A' final.

That pattern also continued with the lightweight women's double sculls team as they also registered a fourth place finish.

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