ROWING/World Cup Regatta: "It's really coming together," said Sinéad Jennings last night after another excellent day for the Irish saw a second and third crew move into today's A finals at the World Cup regatta in Poznan, Poland.
The Ireland lightweight four had taken the quick route through the heats to their final today (10.48 Irish time), but yesterday the men's heavyweight four reproduced their team-mates style by leading all the way to win their repechage and give themselves a shot at a medal. Their final is at 10.12 Irish time.
Jennings and Niamh Ní Chéilleachair forged a very different route to today's A final (10.24). They caused one of the big surprises by pushing world champions Marie-Louise Dräger and Claudia Blasberg of Germany away from the top table.
In a thrilling repechage of the lightweight double sculls, the new Ireland crew came like a train in the second half to take the second qualifying place behind Finland's Sanna Sten and Minna Nieminen, with Blasberg and Dräger forced to watch their long-held lead yield nothing at all. They finished third, forced out by the boats either side of them.
Jennings and Ní Chéilleachair blooded their partnership in Munich only three weeks ago, where they ended up in the C final, but the Donegal woman promised then there was more in this crew, and she was emphatic when asked yesterday whether this was their best row together.
"I would say that was my best race in a double, ever, to be honest," said Jennings, a world champion in the lightweight single in 2001.
The lightweight double are drawn in lane one in their final, while the men's four (lane two) and the lightweight four (lane four) have landed better positions by virtue of their wins along the way.
Coach Harald Jahrling's belief in the benefits of letting ambitious crews test themselves against the very best would seem to be bearing fruit on the evidence of some of the other results yesterday.
The senior four's win was quickly followed by a stirring performance by Ireland's second heavyweight four in their repechage. The under-23 crew raced hard and made Slovenia and Poland work hard to take the qualification spots - quite a performance, considering that the big men in the middle of the Ireland boat, Dan Barry and Paul O'Brien, are only 18.
In the women's single scull semi-final, Caroline Ryan finished fifth and has to settle for a B final place today - but the garda, who is based in Pearse Street, Dublin, knocked almost 10 seconds off her personal best time.
Orla Hayes faded to finish sixth in her B final, but she too got to take on the best in the world.
New Zealand's world champions from last year, Mahe Drysdale, won round one of his battle with Coleraine's Alan Campbell in the single scull semi-final. Campbell, rowing for Britain, finished second and gets to face his sometime training partner in today's final (9.12 Irish time).
Ireland's new lightweight double scull of Tim Harnedy and Richard Coakley will compete in the B final after failing to make it through their semi-final.
Selected: Four - Repechages (First Two to A Final) - Repechage One: 1 Ireland One (C Folan, S Jacob, C Collis, A Martin) 6:02.97, 2 Czech Republic 6:03.26, 3 Germany 6:03.82, 4 Australia 6:07.41. Repechage Two: 1 Slovenia 6:06.05, 2 Poland 6:08.63, 3 Ireland Two (J Wall, D Barry, P O'Brien, P Murray) 6:09.83, 4 Korea 6:31.82. Pair - Semi-Final (First Three to A Final): 1 New Zealand (N Twaddle, G Bridgewater) 6:35.19, 2 Germany One (J Urban, A Penkner) 6:35.67, 3 China (Y Zhang, X Wang) 6.41.88, 4 Ireland (S O'Neill, S Casey) 6:46.96, 5 Serbia and Montenegro 6:48.05, 6 Slovenia (G Novak, B Bozic) 6:49.48. Quadruple - Repechage One (First Two to A Final): 1 France 5:52.30, 2 Belarus 5:55.08, 3 Ukraine Two 5:58.06, 4 Ireland (L Molloy, B Clarke, K Rabbitte, G Ward) 6:20.52. Lightweight Four (Qualifiers for A Final): Repechage One: 1 Egypt 6:09.47, 2 Australia 6:11.74. Repechage Two: 1 Germany 6:04.42, 2 China 6:06.01. Single Scull - Semi-Final (First Three to A Final): 1 New Zealand (M Drysdale) 6:40.12, 2 Britain (A Campbell) 6:40.68, 3 Argentina (A Suarez) 6:51.59. Lightweight Double Sculls - Semi-Final (First Three to A Final): 1 Denmark (M Rasmussen, R Quist) 6:26.90, 2 Italy (M Miani, E Luini) 6:30.55, 3 Cuba (Y Perez, E Batista) 6:32.04, 4 Czech Republic 6:32.48, 5 Finland 6:56.32, 6 Ireland One (T Harnedy, R Coakley) 6:56.48. C Final: 1 Hong Kong 6:46.60, 2 Ireland Two (S Walsh, J Brinn) 6:48.46, 3 Ukraine Two 6:50.22, 4 Hong Kong Two 6:59.26.
Women Single Scull - Semi-Final (First Three to A Final): 1 Czech Republic (M Knapkova) 7:26.49, 2 Sweden (F Svensson) 7:29.27, 3 Poland (J Michalska) 7:35.95, 4 Ukraine (N Guba) 7:43.37, 5 Ireland (C Ryan) 7:45.53, 6 Norway One (T Schoeyen) 7:50.36. Lightweight Double Scull - Repechage One (First Two to Final A): 1 Finland (S Sten, M Nieminen) 7:09.91, 2 Ireland (S Jennings, N Ní Chéilleachair) 7:10.29, 3 Germany (D Reimer, M-L Draeger) 7:11.37, 4 Britain Three (L Dick, A Van Deventer) 7:17.55, 5 Sweden (S Karlsson, L Karlsson) 7:17.69. Lightweight Single Scull - Semi Final (First Three to A Final): 1 Germany (B Carow) 8:02.57, 2 China (Hua Yu) 8:03.83, 3 France Two (C Ribeil) 8:05.80, 6 Ireland (O Hayes) 8:24.56. B Final: 6 1 France 8:13.85, 6 Ireland 8:27.97.
Programme for A Finals (Irish interest; crews in lane order): Men's Four (10.12): Czech Republic, Ireland One, New Zealand, Britain, Slovenia, Poland. Lightweight Women's Double Sculls (10.24): Ireland, Finland, China Two, China Three, Poland, Britain. Lightweight Men's Four (10.48): Australia, Egypt, Britain, Ireland, Germany, China.
