They don't make many weekends like this, but they should, they should. With 400 metres left in the final of the men's lightweight pair yesterday here in Lucerne we knew it was just too much to ask. A third goal medal at the World Championships, it just never happens Irish teams.

But the two men on the water, Tony O'Connor (32) and Gearoid Towey (24) had different ideas. They had come from behind to lead by a tiny margin, but as the Netherlands crew pushed hard, it was nerve wracking to watch. With an assurance and determination which has marked out Irish teams here, however, O'Connor and Towey pushed harder still and even a late sprint by Italy, who had led in the early stages, could not deny them their gold. The Italians finished third.

When Saturday's other Irish gold medallists, lightweight scullers Sam Lynch and Sinead Jennings, launched themselves into the water beside the winning boat, some of the crowd seemed bemused.

But the support of the team members for each other has been admirable. Lynch had made a point on Saturday of asserting that the pair was bound for gold, and Jennings and O'Connor are an even closer team, as they are engaged. "Don't lose the gold," somebody shouted as Jennings, medal around her neck, bobbed up beside the boat. "Don't lose the ring on your finger," quipped O'Connor.

Echoing the philosophy Lynch had expressed the day before O'Connor said that the pair believed they could win, they just had to do it on the day. Towey, close to physical collapse immediately after climbing out of the boat, pointed out that they had been "racing the same crews all year". They knew they could beat them.

For O'Connor this was a case of long threatening coming at last. He first competed at the World Championships in 1993, and with Neville Maxwell he holds two bronze and two silver medals for the lightweight pair, the first bronze won in America in 1994.

"If you keep working hard it is going to pay off some day. That's what I have been telling myself for the past 17 years now! "I have four medals but no gold - until now," added the qualified teacher and full-time oarsman. "I had a good partner today. But I've had a good partner before. I suppose we had the luck."

But luck had little to do with this wonderful performance by the Irish team at this beautiful course, a Mecca for rowers, and bathed in sunshine over the weekend. Gold was what the Irish team sought, as team manager Mick O'Callaghan stated with no apologies, and it was duly landed.

The impressively large Irish crowd saw our first gold since Niall O'Toole won the lightweight single in 1991 in Vienna. And our first women's gold medal, and the first sweep (non-sculling) medal. Ireland were joint third in the medal table with Australia, behind Germany and Britain.

Yet it was the manner of the wins which made the greatest impression: Jennings (24), in only her 10th major championships, let the twice World Champion Pia Vogel (32) and Holland's Mirjam Ter Beek swap the lead through almost three-quarters of the race, taking over at 1,500 metres and holding off a late push by the Dutch woman to win.

It went, said the Donegal woman, as planned, to "take the first 500 steady" and row through the leaders. "With 750 to go I was in control, I knew I could do it," she told the press.

Lynch (25) also showed the sort of top-of-the-world coolness which is unusual in an Irish sportsperson. He knew Jennings had won the race immediately before his, and turned this to good effect. "At the start of my race, just before he said 'go', I heard the result of the lightweight single ... and I just said 'okay, it's down to me now to make it through'." Like Jennings he let others, in this case Frenchman Frederic Dufour, take the early lead but by 1,250 metres the Limerickman was in control. And what a sight it was to see him, with a strike rate well below his opponents, stretch out that lead and hold off a late push by Italy's Stefano Basalini.

Despite never having to fully extend himself he was little over two seconds outside world record pace; he would also have been fourth in the heavyweight single scull, which saw a win for another small country, as Norway's Olaf Tufte took gold.

But the early part of the A finals session on Saturday belonged to Ireland. Two attempts, two gold medals. It was good to be in Lucerne this weekend.

In fact they were the first two awards ceremonies of the day, as Britain's James Cracknell and Matthew Pinsent had won the first race of the day, the coxed pair, with cox Neil Chugani, and had their medal ceremony deferred until later, because they had the little matter of making history by winning the coxless pair.

Both races had close, exciting finishes and to see the open emotion shown by Cracknell afterwards and the calm analysis of Pinsent as he sweated profusely when talking to the media only minutes after the second win was to realise how admirable rowers can be: they don't do this for the money, rather the chance of glory and testing themselves to the limit.

Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus tried to match the feat in the double and single scull, but had to settle for two bronzes. The British added a third title at the end of the day when their coxless four won, allowing Britain to top the table on their own - leaving Ireland and Germany joint second with two titles.

Britain had a less satisfactory day yesterday, with both eights doing badly. Australia won the women's eights and surprise packets Romania the men's, with Croatia second. Germany won the overall prize, with Italy second and Britain third. Ireland were ninth.

In one of the first races on Saturday, Padraic Hussey could finish only fifth in the C final of the men's single sculls. The race was dominated by Britain's Matthew Wells, who won impressively, while Hussey became involved in a dogfight a few hundred metres from the finish with American Timothy Whitney and Italy's Marco Ragazzi to avoid last place. The Irishman avoided sixth at the expense of the Italian.

Yesterday started with some gutsy performances by two crews who were also sent here for development purposes: the young lightweight four, whose average age is just 20, finished second in the C final by .27 of a second after pushing the eventual winners, South Africa hard in the closing stages, and the lightweight quadruple scull were also second home in their B final, after upping the ante in the closing stages against the Netherlands.