European Championships: Rowing brothers Gary and Paul O'Donovan advance

The O'Donovan brothers won silver at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio

Ireland's Gary and Paul O'Donovan cruised through their opening heat at the European Championships in Glasgow.

The 2016 Olympic silver medallists won in a time of 6.27.99 at Strathclyde, 1.84 seconds ahead of France, to advance to Saturday's semi-finals.

The Skibbereen brothers won gold at the World Rowing Cup in Lucerne two weeks ago.

Great Britain's women's eight, which includes Belfast's Rebecca Shorten, qualified automatically for the final.

With only three boats entered, they will be guaranteed a medal along with Romania and the Netherlands.