Paul O'Donovan has retained his lightweight men's single sculls World Championship title in Florida, while Mark O'Donovan and Shane O'Driscoll also claimed gold in Sarasota.

The Cork man eased to victory in a time of 6.48.87 and at one stage was registering 43 strokes per minute, leaving his opponents trailing in his wake.

The New Zealand and Norway rowers were left to battle it out for second and third places as O’Donovan never looked in trouble.

Mark O'Donovan and Shane O'Driscoll receive their gold medals pic.twitter.com/Dk6JTpoJNN — RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) September 29, 2017

Fellow Skibb rowers O'Driscoll and O'Donovan also claimed gold for Ireland.

The lightweight men's pair had been winning all season and were hot favourites for top spot.

The Cork duo got off to a blistering start and had a 1.5 second, 10-metre lead at the halfway stage of the 2,000m race.

They always looked comfortable and had about eight metres to spare over the chasing Italian crew, finishing in a time of 6.32.42.

"Tempo was phenomenal" - Neville Maxwell applauds Mark O'Donovan and Shane O'Driscoll in winning gold pic.twitter.com/xJXfer7ndL — RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) September 29, 2017

Sanita Puspure has qualified for the final of the single sculls.

Cork-based Puspure needed to finish in the top three to claim a spot in Sunday’s final.

Outside the places for the opening half, Puspure timed her push perfectly to clinch second place, narrowly pipped for first by Jeannine Gmelin of Switzerland, in a time of 7.26.93.

Denise Walsh, however, couldn’t match the high standards set by her club-mates as she finished in a disappointing last place in the women’s lightweight single sculls final.

Sanita Puspure now has a final to look forward to pic.twitter.com/yYLwS7JQVn — RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) September 29, 2017

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Going in lane four, the 24-year-old was 22 metres behind the leader, Holland’s Marieke Keijserat, by the halfway mark.

The race was won by South Africa’s Kirsten McCann in a time of 7.38.78.