Yesterday was another red letter day for Irish rowing, with Limerick's Sam Lynch (24), winning gold in the lightweight single sculls at the World Cup meet in Lucerne, while Sinead Jennings took bronze in the women's equivalent.
The two other Irish crews, the women's lightweight quadruple scull and the men's coxed four, took third and fourth places respectively in their four-boat races.
The major shock of the regatta came in the men's heavyweight four, where Steven Redgrave's Britain could finish only fourth behind Italy, New Zealand and Australia.
Jennings' performance was, as ever, gutsy for a woman who took up sculling only last year. The Edinburgh-based Donegal woman was the only Irish competitor at all three World Cup meets this year - although technically the lightweight single is a non-World Cup event - and she won bronze, behind Finnish sculler Laila Finska-Bezerra, in both Munich and Vienna.
Her parents had travelled to Lucerne and Jennings made every effort to give them a golden weekend. She took it out hard in the first 900 metres, but the effort left her eventually giving way to Finska-Bezerra, who finished first, and, in the closing stages, German Angelika Brand.
Lynch, however, had it much more his own way in his final. "I had a really good race," he said. "I was fastest over the first three 500s (at 500, 1,000 and 1,500 metres) but slowed over the last 500, but I still won by about three seconds."
Lynch had an unfortunate time in the first of the three World Cup regattas at Munich, where he powered his way impressively to the final, only to be distracted in the early stages by one of the competitors falling in; the Irishman stopped, thinking he heard a call for the boats to stop, and pulled up only to see the race go by him; he eventually finished fifth.
Yesterday there were to be no such unfortunate mistakes for the man who starts as a medical student in Trinity this year.
"Physically I felt really good, and mentally even better. I was just so relaxed. I've been taking it one day at a time, one race at a time.
"The World Championships in Zagreb next month are my focus now. I've got to knuckle down for them. I'm going to Sweden to train."
