Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics and will race for a gold medal at the World Rowing Championships.

The Irish duo won their Lightweight Double Sculls semi-final in Austria, storming home in a time of 6:13.460, ahead of Germany and Norway to book their place in the A final.

O’Donovan and McCarthy embarked on a tactical race, letting Germany and Australia do the early running before moving to the front in the second half of the race and holding on to beat the Germans by .13 of a second.

They’ll be back in action this evening in the final, where they’ll be eying the medal places.

The M2- crew of Mark O'Donovan and Shane O’Driscoll won their E final by a comfortable five seconds, seeing off crews from Lithuania and Cuba. 

There was, however, disappointment for Gary O'Donovan, who was sixth in his Lightweight Single Sculls semi and will now go in the B final of that event.

Elsewhere, Aileen Crowley and Monika Dukarska have to settle for a place in the B final of the Women’s Pair event, as do the quartet of Aifric Keogh, Eimear Lambe, Tara Hanlon and Emily Hegarty in the Women’s Fours, who will now race in the B Final where a top-two finish will see the Women's Four qualify for Tokyo.

Both Irish crews finished fourth in their semi-finals.

Lydia Heaphy represented Ireland in the Lightweight Women's A/B semi-final where she finished sixth in a fiercely competitive race. 

Heaphy will now race in the B final on Friday.

The lightweight double crew (LW2x) of Denise Walsh and Aoife Casey finished third in the C/D semi-final.

Watch the World Rowing Championships on RTÉ2 on Saturday & Sunday (31 August/1 September) from 12.30pm