0’Donovans enjoy quarter-final victory

THE O’Donovan brothers came from behind to clinch quarter-final victory at the World Championships yesterday in Bulgaria, where Ireland’s lightweight men’s quad also qualified for their final.

The Olympic silver medallists led Austria across the line, while arch-rivals Norway qualified in third place for today’s semi-final.

Gary (right) and Paul O’Donovan pounded off the start at 48 strokes per minute but it was Austria who led the six-boat pack to 500m, where Ireland were back in fourth place.

At the halfway mark they put in a burn to overhaul third-placed Switzerland and quickly gained a half-length overlap on Norway.

At 1,500m the Skibbereen men turned on the power to cruise past the Norwegians, who had taken gold ahead of Ireland at the European Championships in Glasgow six weeks ago.

In a final surge for the finish the O’Donovans squeezed past Austria to win in 6 mins 44.44 secs.

Earlier in the day, Ireland’s young lightweight quad qualified for tomorrow’s ‘A’ final when they finished second to Turkey in their repechage. The crew included Andrew Goff and Ryan Ballantyne from the silver-medal U-23 quad, and the McCarthy twins, Jacob and Fintan, from the U-23 pair. The day ended in dramatic fashion after racing was called off because of unfair weather conditions.

It means that Ronan Byrne and Philip Doyle will now race their repechage of the men’s double sculls today as will reigning lightweight champions Shane O’Driscoll and Mark O’Donovan in their first World Championships quarter-final as heavyweights.