The beauty and the cruelty of championship rowing were encapsulated in one final at the National Championships at Inniscarra in Cork yesterday.

Sam Lynch of St Michael's, bronze medallist at the recent World Cup regatta in Lucerne and seventh in last year's World Championships, had every reason to feel confident that he would successfully defend his national lightweight single sculling crown. But championships are all about what happens on the day - and what happened to Lynch was that after 400 metres of the race the gate which held one of his sculls broke, the oar came free and both scull and sculler fell into the water.

Experienced rower John Armstrong of Lady Victoria Boat Club won the race and need not have felt embarrassed, Timmy Harnedy of Skibbereen was second and Eugene Coakley of UCC third.

The women's senior coxless pair of Debbie Stack and Mary Hussey began the competition in winning fashion. They had a comfortable victory over Fossa, Methodist College third. Stack and Hussey are likely to do well at the weekend.

The outstanding junior club Skibbereen will also look to the weekend with justifiable hope after winning the junior men's double scull and coxed fours yesterday. Offaly were similarly successful in the junior women's disciplines, winning the double and quadruple sculling titles.