OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALLISTS Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy will be racing against each other at the 2021 Irish Rowing Championships taking place this weekend at the National Rowing Centre.

The pair, who triumphed in the lightweight men’s double sculls at the Tokyo Games, will be competing in multiple senior events during the three days of action in Inniscarra, Cork.

But they will be on opposing sides as O’Donovan prepares to represent UCC while McCarthy will be rowing for the Skibbereen club. O’Donovan’s brother Gary and Jake McCarthy will also feature for Skibbereen RC.

Fintan and Gary will join forces in the men’s senior double while Paul will row alongside fellow Irish Olympian Ronan Byrne for UCC. 

The O’Donovan and McCarthy siblings along with Byrne will also be competing in a strong field in the men’s senior single category.

Emily Hegarty and Aifric Keogh, who were part of the women’s four who won bronze for Ireland at the Olympics, are also set to compete for UCC.

Fellow UCC representatives Aoife Casey and Margaret Cremen will both be in the water too this weekend, after finishing in eighth place in the Olympic lightweight double sculls B final last month.

Rowing Ireland will be providing a live stream of the championships on their social medial channels, with 503 crews entering in 55 categories.

The action set to get underway on Friday morning at 9am. 

You can full details on the racing schedule here

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