Zoe Hyde and Margaret Cremen win World Rowing Championships gold

How the World Rowing Championships final was won

Racing out of lane one, Ireland sat fractionally behind the Dutch after 500 metres.

As the Netherlands upped the pace around 1,000m, Hyde and Cremen responded, with Switzerland third.

The Dutch led with 1,500m gone, but the Irish pair produced a magnificent final 300 metres to reel them in, live on RTÉ Player.

U2's 'Beautiful Day' blared over the tannoy as they celebrated. In May, the duo won bronze at World Cup I in Seville.

'World champion, whaaat?'

"It's unbelievable, we just worked hard all winter," Cremen told RTÉ Sport's David Gillick afterwards.

"We just made every session count. Just in such shock right now to be honest.

"From the second we got to Amsterdam, we just had this undeniable belief in ourselves and in each other. We just kept that momentum throughout the week. It's just paid off and it's incredible."

"We're in complete disbelief," Hyde said. "World champion! Whaaat? We knew it was going to be a fight. In the last 250, I had a look - and I think Mags did too - and saw they're [the Dutch] right there. We can do it, we can go. We just horsed it down the course and we got over first!"