Niall O'Toole collapsed back into the boat as the Irish men's lightweight quadruple scull crossed the line after just missing out on a medal in the World Rowing Championships in Cologne yesterday. In the foreground the flags rose for a medal presentation (the women's quad), and an anthem rung out: it added piquancy - there would be no Irish flag rising at this championships as our last hope had gone.

To take a boat with an 18-year old (Owen Byrne), a 21-year-old (Gearoid Towey) and a 22-yearold (Neal Byrne) to within 2.14 of a World Championship medal is hardly a disaster, and Ireland also had a seventh place (22-year-old single sculler Sam Lynch) and an eighth (the lightweight coxless four) to show from the week.

But the disappointment yesterday was intense. "I was gutted," said bowman Towey. "You come here to win some tin."

The race developed into a twopronged battle: the Italians, who won gold, set a hot pace, followed by the Germans, who pushed hard, but had to settle for silver. And then there was the battle between Ireland and the United States for the bronze. The US held sway at 500 metres, the Irish had taken over by 1,000 - but the US again pushed and the Irish, try as they might, could not match them. The United States, who were squeezed out of the bronze position by the Irish in last year's World Championships, reversed the order this time, although they were only certain of a medal in the last 50 metres.

The straight-talking coach of the crew, Mick Desmond, assessed it thus: "They landed in the place where their skill allowed them to land."

The man who coached the quad to bronze last year and O'Toole to Ireland's only gold, as a single sculler in Vienna in 1991, never balks at putting personal popularity second to making his point, which in this case is that the structures in Irish rowing need to be changed, with the emphasis on long-term planning.

Desmond says that the growth of sculling in particular will only continue if the Competitive Rowing Committee puts more emphasis on the discipline and charges somebody with the task of taking control. "The lifeline of any sport is its success. If it is not bringing success it is going to begin to burn off and die."

One small country which can be proud of its elite rowers is Denmark. The dominance of their men's lightweight coxless four, who are the reigning Olympics champions and won their third World Championship in a row yesterday in an exciting race, is nothing short of astounding.

The Irish lightweight four would hardly have lived with the Danes yesterday, but they did a lot to lift the gloom of their poor performance in the semi-final with a determined, controlled row in the B final on Saturday. Despite incessant heavy rain the four refound their rhythm. Having let Italy get ahead early in the race they pushed hard over the final 500 metres (they rowed the fastest last 250) and were only .93 of a second away from the Italians at the end.

There seems to be a consensus emerging that to reach a higher standard there should be more competition for places in the Irish boat.

The other races involving the Irish on Saturday went much as expected. The women's lightweight quad were third of three in their B final. The men's lightweight double scull of John Armstrong (36) and Eugene Coakley (19) were also third, of six, in their D final. This duo was put together with the idea of generating bigrace experience for Coakley, but Armstrong, whose seventh World Championships this is, was sorely disappointed with their placing, because their times suggested they were not far away from a much better placing.

Elsewhere on Saturday Britain's powerhouse men's heavyweight coxless four caught the eye with their win - one of the highlights of a fine showing for the country, which won three golds to be joint second in this table with Italy, behind table toppers Germany, with five golds.

In the fours race, France, Italy and Australia finished in the runner-up spots in that order, but with only 19 hundredths of second covering them. Yesterday's final race, the heavyweight men's eight, produced an even closer battle for a medal. Amid great excitement, the United States won, and Germany was second. Romania pipped Russia for the bronze by one hundredth of a second.