O'Donovan and McCarthy claim Irish titles before doing battle at National Championships

Still winning: Gold medallists Paul O'Donovan, left, and Fintan McCarthy are interviewed by RTE and Virgin News at Dublin Airport as Team Ireland's rowers return from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

Before they do battle with one another, Tokyo Olympic heroes Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy added more hardware to their trophy cabinets on the opening day of the Irish Rowing Championships. 

One of the highlights of the three-day event at the National Rowing Centre will see the gold medalists face off against one another in the quadruple sculls on Saturday but before all that O'Donovan and McCarthy claimed national titles on Froiday

O’Donovan combined with Ronan Byrne to claim victory in the double sculls for UCC while McCarthy went his own way in impressive fashion as he claimed a lightweight single sculls title for Skibbereen. 

Fellow Olympians Aoife Casey and Margaret Cremen were victorious in the women’s double meanwhile.