Valent Sinkovic, 36, celebrated his birthday by winning another gold in the men's pairs. Paul O'Donovan & Fintan Mccarthy of Ireland also won a convincing victory at the Paris Games as they closed out the era of lightweight sculls.

Sinkovic, his brother Martin, and O'Donovan won their third gold medal in succession. O'Donovan won silver in the lightweight category with his sibling Gary at the 2016 Tokyo Olympics. McCarthy successfully defended her Tokyo Olympic title with O'Donovan.

I don't remember what happened, but it was a good race. Martin, elatedly, said "Happy birthday to my little brother."

Valent, the birthday boy was thrilled after the brave performance that saw the French overtake the British and snatching the gold from their hands.

We thought that it was going to be difficult for us to win a medal but we decided we would give everything we had and do our best. "After 1500 metres, we ran like mad and saw we were faster than both the Swiss and Romania," said he.

In the pairs for women, the Dutch team of Ymkje Claevering and Veronique meester easily won, and Romania edged out Australia after a fierce battle.

In the men's double lightweight sculls race, O'Donovan, McCarthy and Greece were all in a dead heat for second place by half way.

Italians who were leading the race before Irish overtook them, won by less than a 10th of a sec.

You never know what you're going to get until you step over the line. O'Donovan stated that they were very pleased to hold on to the first position. There's some fierce competition in the world. We were not sure what to expect until we arrived.

The lightweight sculls, introduced in 1996 in an effort to increase the number of participants and racers from different countries, will be replaced with coastal rowing at the Los Angeles Games 2028.

The British team of Emily Craig and Imogen grant won the last lightweight sculls event of the Olympic Era, winning gold with a time 6:47.06, to redeem themselves for having missed the podium by a hundredth of a sec in Tokyo.

The second last day of the regatta was rounded off with Romania securing the silver and Greece the bronze medal.

(source: Reuters)