Sam Lynch gave the Irish supporters a few heart-stopping moments in the final 200 metres, before securing qualification for the A final in the men's lightweight single scull at the World Championships in St Catharines, Ontario, yesterday.

Lynch, who won bronze at the World Cup regatta in Lucerne in July, needed to take one of the top three places here to qualify, and he looked on course to do this easily enough as he smoothly moved into the lead ahead of Britain's Peter Haining and Australian World under-23 champion Karl Parker coming up to the 1,500 metres.

But the next 500 metres belonged to 24-year-old Hungarian Gergely Kokas. He powered through from fourth to first, with Lynch at first looking like he was going to go out the back as Haining pushed hard to move into second. But the Limerickman dug in to hold onto the valuable third place.

Lynch, thrilled with his place in a World Championship final ("that was deadly", he said smiling), explained afterwards that in the final few hundred metres he had to battle to avoid his oars getting caught under the buoys that mark out the lanes on the course: "I had to decide whether to go for it and risk getting caught under a buoy or make sure I qualified," he said.

Only 18 months a sculler, Lynch's performance was admirable, especially since he did poorly in the semi-finals in the World Championships in Cologne last year. He then went on to win the B final out of the difficult lane one, where he will again be placed in tomorrow's decider here.

Although part of the lightweight four which just missed out on a medal in the Olympics in 1996, Lynch says his achievement here is more fulfilling. "This is better. I did this on my own."

The contrast between the body language of the St Michael's man and that of Neptune's Albert Maher as he carried his boat from the water half an hour later was marked. Heavyweight single sculller Maher had also finished third in his race, but now qualifies only for the D final. Winning here would only give him 19th place in the world, compared to the 17th he secured last year, and he was clearly conscious of this as coach Sean Drea moved alongside him offering analysis of his performance.

One of the most impressive performances of the day came from an expected quarter. The British heavyweight coxless four, stroked by Matthew Pinsent and with Stephen Redgrave in the number two seat won sustained applause from the gallery as they won their semi-final. It had been by no means a cakewalk for them as Italy and New Zealand, who filled the other qualification places pushed them hard in the middle section. But the British moved clear with admirable ease. Australia, France and Norway qualified in the other, slower, semi-final.