Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy set the standard as they return to another Olympic final

Nathan Timoney and Ross Corrigan, and Aoife Casey and Margaret Cremen, will also race for medals on Friday.

Written by Niall Kelly and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won’t find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women’s sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here.

FOUR IRISH CREWS will have a shot at Olympic rowing medals this week after a brilliant morning at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Centre in Paris.

Reigning Olympic champions Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy will be joined by Ross Corrigan and Nathan Timoney, and Aoife Casey and Margaret Cremen, in Friday morning’s medal races.

And with Philip Doyle and Daire Lynch already preparing for Thursday’s double sculls final, it’s shaping up to be a seismic week on the water for Team Ireland.

O’Donovan and McCarthy proved that they are still the boat to beat in the lightweight men’s double sculls as they won their semi-final with the fastest overall time.

The Skibbereen duo won in 6:21.88 ahead of Switzerland (6:24.31) and Czechia (6:25.99), while Italy (6:22.85), Greece (6:23.36) and Norway (6:26.62) qualified from the second semi-final.

Earlier on Wednesday, Fermanagh’s Corrigan and Timoney dug deep to qualify for the final of the men’s pair.

After going out hard early on, they hung on in a thrilling finale to keep fast-finishing New Zealanders Daniel Williamson and Phillip Wilson at bay, taking the third and final qualification spot (6:32.22) behind Romania (6:29.86) and Great Britain (6:31.56).

The lightweight women’s double sculls semi-finals were also a nail-biter as Cremen and Casey prevailed in a titanic tussle, finishing third in 6:59.72.

The Cork duo were fractionally outside the qualification spots with 500m to race, but reeled in Tokyo silver medallists Laura Tarantola and Claire Bove of France to edge out the home hopefuls and progress in their place.

However, there was disappointment for Aifric Keogh and Fiona Murtagh in the women’s pair as they finished sixth in their semi-final (7:32.97) and will now race in Friday’s B final.