ROWING/World Cup Lucerne:Ireland's admirable men's heavyweight four charged into today's semi-final with a spirit-lifting win in their repechage in the blazing sunshine here last evening, rounding off a day in which Orlagh Duddy had secured a semi-final place straight from her heat in the lightweight single scull. But these were bright spells on a sometimes gloomy first day of the World Cup for the men and women in green.

Five of Ireland's seven crews are in Olympic-class boats, and that four of Seán O'Neill, Cormac Folan, Seán Casey and Alan Martin was the only one to give themselves a chance of making tomorrow's A Final. In only six weeks Ireland will travel to the World Championships in Munich, where the bulk of Olympic qualification places are booked. A number of boats must turn their form around - fast.

The lightweight women's double of Sinead Jennings and Niamh Ní Cheilleachair finished fourth in their heat yesterday, and then fifth, just one place off last, in their repechage, consigning themselves to today's C Final (places 13 to 18).

Last year this crew placed seventh in the world, the same as the men's four, but the fortunes of the the crews have been very different. Jennings and Ní Cheilleachair have found it hard to put four quarters of a race together.

Afterwards, Ireland team manager Mick O'Callaghan declared himself "baffled". While national coach Harald Jahrling has clearly done a fine job with the heavyweight four, would the appointment of a dedicated women's coach, an ambition long held by some in the IARU, make a difference?

"We have one of the best coaches in the world working with the team. The team isn't that big that it can't be managed. We've been getting results since Harald came. The lightweight men's four medalled twice (World Championships silver in 2005, bronze in 2006). There might have been a few blips since. We have a heavy men's squad that didn't exist when (Jahrling) came."

The three other Olympic-class boats which failed to make it through were the men's lightweight four, the quadruple scull and the women's single scull of Caroline Ryan.

Ryan's battle to make the semis was ended by Serbia's Iva Obradovic in the repechage, where two places were available. Ryan slotted into the second place behind Denmark's Ulla Hvid, but could not hold off Obradovic.

The men's quadruple were long odds for making their mark here even before Con Collis suffered an injury. While Seán Jacob is an experienced substitute, the disruption hardly helped a crew which found itself slipping into today's C Final.

The men's four not only provided a highlight for the Irish - their heat was one of the most exciting races of the long day. Britain controlled the race until 1,500 metres, but as the battle for the second qualification place went off behind them they found themselves headed by Slovenia, and had to sprint clear to wrest back the lead. Then Germany charged - only to stop dead. The Irish took their chance to take third. In their repechage they put in a fine sprint to pip Greece.

Duddy's way to the final was very different: she had a good grasp of a qualification spot in her heat soon after half-way, but insisted on racing the leader, the experienced Dane Kirsten Jepsen. They moved well clear of the rest, and Duddy eased off.

Another admirable performance, though Duddy is unfortunately not in an Olympic-class boat.

Day One (Irish interest)

MEN: Four, Heat One (Two directly to A/B semi-finals, rest to repechages): 1 Britain (S Williams, P Reed, T James, A Triggs Hodge) 6:01.76, 2 Slovenia 6:30.32, 3 Ireland (S O'Neill, C Folan, S Casey, A Martin) 6:07.96, 4 Germany 6:10.67, 5 Australia 6:17.78, 6 Portugal 6:22.06. Repechage One (Three to A/B semi-finals): 1 Ireland 6:05.22, 2 Greece 6:06.07, 3 Poland 6:09.46, 4 Portugal 6:16.74, 5 Spain 6:17.22.

Lightweight Four, Heat Four (First directly to A/B semi-finals; rest to repechages): 1 France (F Solforosi, J Pouge, J-C Bette, F Tilliet) 6:07.77, 2 US 6:13.14, 3 Ireland 6:17.46, 4 Netherlands Two 6:18.08, 5 Egypt Two 6:19.27, 6 Japan 6:20.50. Repechage Four (First two to A/B semi-finals; third, fourth to C Final; fifth to D Final): 1 Egypt 6:09.41, 2 Spain 6:11.09, 3 Czech Republic 6:12.82, 4 Russia 6:13.64, 5 Ireland 6:16.29.

Quadruple Scull, Heat One (Two directly to A/B semi-finals; rest to repechages): 1 Russia 5:54.29, 2 Italy One 5:56.12, 6 Ireland (J Wall, S Jacob, P OBrien, P Murray) 6:23.87. Repechage One (Three to A/B semi-finals; rest to C Final): 1 Canada 5:55.90, 2 Romania 5:56.53, 3 Britain 5:57.41, 4 Italy Two 5:59.87, 5 Ireland 6:08.23.

Lightweight Single Scull, Heat Two (First directly to A/B semi-finals; rest to repechages): 1 New Zealand (D Grant) 7:06.88, 5 Ireland (R Coakley) 7:22.58. Repechage Four (First two to A/B semi-finals; third to C Final): 1 France One 7:14.49, 2 Slovenia 7:18.35, 3 Ireland 7:20.73.

WOMEN: Single Scull, Heat Four (First two directly to A/B semi-finals; rest to repechages): 1 China (X Zhang) 7:45.88, 2 France (S Balmary) 7:50.24, 5 Ireland (C Ryan) 8:00.06. Repechage One (First two to A/B semi-finals; third to C Final): 1 Denmark 7:48.68, 2 Serbia 7:51.31, 3 Ireland 8:00.45.

Lightweight Double Scull, Heat Three (First two directly to A/B semi-finals; rest to repechages): 1 Britain (H Casey, H Goodsell) 7:17.24, 2 US 7:19.64, 3 Switzerland 7:22.66, 4 Ireland (S Jennings, N Ni Cheilleachair) 7:26.46, 5 Russia 7:27.13, 6 Czech Republic 7:48.35. Repechage One (First three to A/B semi-finals; rest to C Final): 1 Italy (E Bello, L Milani) 7:09.87, 2 Finland (S Sten, M Nieminen) 7:10.75, 3 Spain (T Mas de Xaxars, S Boubeta Curras) 7:18.30, 4 Japan 7:23.31, 5 Ireland 7:26.40, 6 Czech Republic 7:27.61.

Lightweight Single Scull, Heat Four (First two directly to A/B semi-finals): 1 Denmark One (K Jepsen) 8:00.15, 2 Ireland (O Duddy) 8:04.23, 3 Russia (D Stepochkina) 8:10.78, 4 Spain (L Guillen Cruz) 8:32.49, 5 Albania (I Theka) 8:45.75.

TODAY (Irish interest, Irish times)

8.0: Women's Lightweight Single Scull, Semi-final (O Duddy). 9.0: Lightweight Men's Four, D Final: C Moynihan, E Coakley, L Molloy, P Griffin. 9.12: Lightweight Men's Single Sculls, C Final (R Coakley). 9.18: Women's Single Scull, C Final (C Ryan). 9.48: Lightweight Women's Double Sculls, C Final (S Jennings, N Ni Cheilleachair). 10.06: Men's Quadruple Scull, C Final: J Wall, S Jacob, P O'Brien, P Murray. 3.30: Men's Heavyweight Four, semi-finals: S O'Neill, C Folan, S Casey, A Martin.