Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy move comfortably on to another title shot

Irish crews will contest five medal races as the World Rowing Championships reach a climax in Racice, the Czech Republic this weekend, with the promise yet of one more to come.

Chief among them once again is Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy. They may not have it all their own way, still there’s little to suggest the Skibbereen pair won’t add another gold medal in the men’s lightweight double sculls, winning their semi-final on Thursday morning with plenty room to space.

There might well have been another Irish crew in the medal races too, the young men’s four of John Kearney, Ross Corrigan, Nathan Timoney and Jack Dorney — all making their senior debut — just pushed out of third place in the closing 500 metres, the more experienced Swiss crew coming back to snatch the last qualifying spot by just a second and a half. It was a super effort nonetheless by the Irish, the promise of more to come there in the years ahead.

Unless they row the wrong way, it appears O’Donovan and McCarthy have plenty in reserve on their three main rivals, winning ahead of the young Swiss crew in their semi-final, the local Czech crew of Jiri Simonek and Miroslav Vrastil winning the first semi-final ahead of Italy, Stefano Oppo and Pietro Ruta, the silver medal winners at last month’s European Championships, who did show marked improvement on their quarter-final.

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Under bright, calm conditions, O’Donovan and McCarthy took care of business without much fuss, allowed the young Swiss crew of Raphael Ahumada and Ireland Jan Schaeuble, third in those European Championships, to set the pace in the opening 500m.

It was soon a two-boat race, the Swiss still marginally ahead at halfway, before the Irish began to push from their middle lane, half a second up at 1,500 before the reigning World, Olympic and European champions continued their winning streak by just under a boat length in 6:24.41. In the first semi-final, the Czech crew finished in 6:26.94.

In the women’s lightweight doubles, Margaret Cremen and Aoife Casey also underlined their medal-winning potential by taking second in a race dominated by the British crew.

Still Cremen and Casey rowed a smart and controlled race, holding back a little until the halfway mark, which they passed in third, the Greek crew just marginally ahead in second, at that point Australia and Canada also pushing for the third qualifying spot

From there they pressed on hard, eventually finished second a neat boat length clear of the Greek crew, Britain taking the win in 6:58.67, the Irish 3.48 seconds behind. In a shock result, Italy’s Valentina Rodini and Federica Cesarini, who became Olympic Champions last year, missed out on place in the final as Switzerland beat them to the line by 0.22 seconds.

Reunited again after their Olympic bronze medal win in Tokyo, the Irish women’s four also moved on to their final looking well capable of battling for the medals.

Emily Hegarty, Fiona Murtagh, Eimear Lambe and Aifric Keogh went in their first of their semi-finals also confident of progressing, which they did, finishing second to the Great British crew, not quite a boat length behind, with China claiming the third A-final spot. The British crew will likely start a favourites now, winning in 6:38.89, given the surprise of the second semi-final, won the Dutch crew in 6:44.10 ahead of Romania, the well-fancied Australians only third.

Katie O’Brien and Steven McGowen are also into the final of the Para mixed double after a second-place finish in their repechage, four seconds behind the crew from Uzbekistan. O’Brien is already into the four-boat final of the PR2 single sculls, off on Friday (12.18 Irish time)

There is one more semi-final to come for the Irish crews on Friday, Zoe Hyde and Sanita Puspure off at 11.16am (Irish time) also looking well capable of making their A final in the women’s double sculls.

In the women’s lightweight single sculls, Lydia Heaphy placed sixth and will next race the B final, as will the women’s pair of Natalie Long and Tara Hanlon, fifth in their semi-final.