McCarthy: Rare loss 'threw me' after four golden years with O'Donovan

Ireland's golden duo know that the last Worlds of an Olympic cycle are the toughest event outside only the Games themselves

READY TO ROW: Fintan McCarthy poses for a portrait during a Rowing Ireland media day at the National Rowing Centre in Farran Woods, Cork. Pic Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile

They’ve been the rock on which all others have perished time and again but Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy take to the waters at the World Rowing Championships in Serbia in the coming week after coming aground themselves earlier this summer.

The Skibbereen crew had traversed four years unbeaten in the men’s lightweight double sculls before their run was interrupted at World Cup II in Lucerne in July when the French crew of Hugo Beurey and Ferdinand Ludwig had 0.09 seconds to spare on them then.