Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy win gold at World Rowing Championships

Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy have collected Ireland's first medal at the World Rowing Championships in Austria.

The Skibbereen duo took gold in the Lightweight Men's Double Sculls, having already secured qualification for next year's Olympics earlier this week.

They accelerated from last to first between the 500m and 1500m marks, beating the Italian crew by over two seconds by the finish.

It's O'Donovan's fourth consecutive World gold medal, after collecting two in the Lightweight Men's Single and two in the double, having won with his brother Gary last year.

"We couldn’t quite believe it but it’s always really nice to win," he told World Rowing.

"Our start wasn’t great but we finished well. We will take a lot of confidence with this moving forward."

Elsewhere, Aileen Crowley and Monika Dukarska finished second in the women's pair B final to book their place on the plane to Tokyo.

Tara Hanlon, Eimear Lambe, Aifric Keogh, and Emily Hegarty finished fourth in the Women's Four B final. They needed a top-two finish to qualify for the Olympics.