Paul O'Donovan: We won the race, so it’s hard to do much better than that

JOB done was how Paul O’Donovan described the Irish lightweight double’s dominant heat win in their opening race at the Olympics.

The all-conquering combination of O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy cruised to an emphatic win, finishing five seconds clear of second-placed Czech Republic in a time of 6.23.74, to progress to the A/B semi-final.

‘We won the race, so it’s hard to do much better than that – you don’t want to win by 20 seconds either, because it’s very hot out there. It was still tough, all the races at this regatta will be tough. But it’s difficult to complain with that result,’ O’Donovan said.

Fintan McCarthy was happy with a job well done as well, as the reigning World and European champions move on to the next round.

‘I reckon we row in all sorts of conditions in training and we are used to adapting to whatever condition is thrown at us. It’s about being adaptable and doing what we do in training,’ McCarthy said.

Their lightweight men’s double sculls A/B semi-final will be in the early hours of Tuesday morning.