ROWING/World Championship: Ireland's men's four confirmed the recent rise in the fortunes of men's heavyweight rowing is no flash in the pan by booking a semi-final place at the World Championships in Eton yesterday.
Under coach Harald Jahrling the Irish rebuilt the heavyweight programme last year and the men's four doubly crowned the achievement by winning a bronze medal at the World Cup in Munich and finishing 10th at the World Championships in Gifu in Japan.
This year's four of Cormac Folan (23), Seán O'Neill (26), Seán Casey (28) and Alan Martin (25) only came together in this formation for the final World Cup in Lucerne, where they finished eighth, but they feel the recent high-altitude camp in St Moritz and training in Cork have brought them along. "It's coming together more and more," said Casey after yesterday's race.
They moved into the semi-finals (the world's top 12) with a confident row in yesterday's repechage which saw them take the second of the three qualification places, behind France and ahead of the Czech Republic.
France and Australia set the early pace, but the Irish were disputing the lead by halfway and had taken the lead by 1,700 metres. The French, rating 44 strokes a minute, came back to take the Irish, with the young Czech crew pushing Australia into fourth.
Tomorrow's draw pits the Irish against world champions Britain, Germany, Slovenia, Spain and Canada, with three to go through. It would be a huge achievement, but Casey says they are intent on making the A Final. "That's the only place you're in with a shot of getting a medal. That's where we want to be," said the Kerryman.
Seán Jacob and Caroline Ryan both finished fourth in their single sculls repechages yesterday. Jacob moves into semi-finals today to determine who goes into the C and D Finals (places 13 to 18 and 19 to 24), but Ryan, who has been struggling with a stress fracture of the ribs since last week, withdrew on medical advice last evening. The quiet-spoken Pearse Street Garda Ryan, who won the elite single scull at Women's Henley last year, has shown tremendous determination in her first season competing for Ireland.
She finished eighth in the World Cup in Poznan and 10th in Lucerne, but to step up to the next level was always asking a lot of the slight Kildare woman, and it was borne out yesterday when Iva Obradovic of Serbia and Maria Gonzalez Borotto of Cuba wrapped up the A/B semi-final places. Portugal's Sara Silva took third, with Ryan fourth.
Jacob was unlucky to be drawn in a repechage which was all about Alan Campbell. The Coleraine man, who competes for Britain and won a World Cup gold medal in Munich, had reportedly been ill in the run-up to his disappointing race in his heat on Sunday and finished fifth. Yesterday he was back to winning ways, and had over four seconds to spare over Switzerland's Andre Vonarburg, who took the other qualification place. Jakko Hasu of Finland tucked into third, with Jacob well behind him at the end.
The organisers decided to bring all today's racing forward, and have races run at five-minute intervals because of the weather forecast. Ireland team manager Mick O'Callaghan said those in charge were expecting strong winds at 11am.
The Ireland lightweight four are scheduled to race in their repechage at 10.10am and would hope to use the opportunity to put their defeat by China in the heat behind them. Sinead Jennings and Niamh Ní Cheilleachair go in their repechage of the lightweight double scull at 9.54am and should also qualify for Friday's semi-finals.
In their repechage (9.40am), Richard Coakley and Tim Harnedy are less certain to avoid the route to the semi-finals for the C, D and E finals.
Day Three
Men Four - Repechage One (First three to semi-final A/B): 1 France 5:56.79, 2 Ireland (C Folan, S O'Neill, S Casey, A Martin) 5:58.21, 3 Czech Republic 6:00.09, 4 Australia 6:02.59, 5 Egypt 6:03.66, 6 Portugal 6:11.83.
Single Scull - Repechage Two (First two to semi-final A/B): 1 Britain (A Campbell) 6:59.11, 2 Switzerland (A Vonarburg) 7:03.77, 3 Finland (J Hasu) 7:03.57, 4 Ireland (S Jacob) 7:15.28.
Women Single Scull - Repechage One (First two to semi-final A/B): 1 Serbia (I Obradovic) 7:42.52, 2 Cuba (M Gonzalez Borroto) 7:44.91, 3 Portugal (S Silva) 7:49.51, 4 Ireland (C Ryan) 7:52.21, 5 El Salvador (C Vargas Polomo) 8:13.46, 6 Indonesia (P Karoba) 8:30.70.
Today's Programme (Irish interest) 9.20 - Lightweight Women's Double Scull, Repechage: Sinead Jennings, Niamh Ní Cheilleachair
9.40 - Lightweight Men's Double Scull, Repechage: Richard Coakley, Tim Harnedy
10.10 - Lightweight Men's Four, Repechage: Gearóid Towey, Eugene Coakley, Richard Archibald, Paul Griffin.
11.05 - Men's Single Scull Semi-Final C/D: Seán Jacob
