Ireland's Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy have won a gold medal in the Lightweight Men's Double at the World Championships in Austria on Saturday.

The Irish crew had already qualified for the Olympics on Thursday and picked up the gold medal on Saturday after defeating crews from Italy and Germany in a finishing time of 06:35.280.

This is O'Donovan's fourth consecutive World Championship gold medal, having won in 2016 and 2017 in the Lightweight Men’s Single. He was also successful in the 2018 Double with Gary O’Donovan. 

Elsewhere, Aileen Crowley and Monika Dukarska finished second in the women's pair B final at the World Championships to secure qualification for the Olympics, making them the fourth Irish boat to qualify for the Games.

The pair took the lead early on and the competing crews were close together throughout the race.

The Romanian crew took first with Ireland finishing just over a second behind them. Boats from China, Great Britain, Greece and Chile finished behind the Irish pair. Monika and Aileen’s final time was 07:20.680.

The LM2x crew of Aoife Casey and Denise Walsh finished 5th in the C Final in a time of 07:10.520. The duo were competing against crews from China, Japan, Poland, Germany, and Spain. They battled against the German crew but ultimately fell short by less than a second.

The Women's Four of Emily Hegarty, Tara Hanlon, Eimear Lambe and Aifric Keogh finished fourth in the W4- B Final, clocking a time of 07:02.710.

Great Britain and Canada took first and second place in the race. Those boats were racing in lanes five and six, which were favourable lanes to be in due to the crosswinds. 

The Irish Crew were less than a second off China who took third.