Sam Lynch of the St Michael's club in Limerick won his heat of the men's lightweight single sculls emphatically to qualify directly for Thursday's semi-finals of the event at the World Rowing Championships in St Catharines, Canada, yesterday.
The Irishman's win saves him extra races in difficult conditions - and the intense heat and a headwind on the course, combined with what team manager Dermot Henihan called "minor injury scares" has also convinced the men's lightweight pair of Tony O'Connor and Neville Maxwell to abandon plans of competing as a heavyweight pair to qualify the boat for next year's Olympics.
"Six races would have been too much," said Henihan of the pair's decision. They will now compete solely as in the lightweight discipline, where finishing in the top three in today's heat will put them into the semi-finals. "Let's go for medals, let's go for gold," he added.
The difficulty of competing in events which carry qualification places for the Olympics was well illustrated in yesterday's heats by the women's double scull of Debbie Stack and Mary Hussey, whose fifth, and last place in a heat won by Denmark means they now face a tough six-boat repechage tomorrow.
The Irish women will have to finish in the top three to make the semi-finals. Among their opponents will be reigning world champions Britain, who also failed to make it through the heats.
Heavyweight single sculler Albert Maher has an even more difficult task: he also finished fifth and last in his heat, which was won by Northern Irishman Derek Porter, who rows for Canada. Maher's Draw in tomorrow's repechage will mean he is unlikely to make his way to the final.
World Championships: Heats (Irish results): Men, Single Scull - Heat Three (Winner straight to semi-finals): 1 Canada (D Porter) 7:02.96, 2 Latvia (A Reinholds) 7:10.99, 3 South Africa (A Grant) 7:13.99, 4 Russia (N Spinev) 7:16.45, 5 Ireland (A Maher) 7:21.35. Other heat winners: Rob Waddell (New Zealand) 7:01.45, Ivo Ianakiev (Bulgaria) 6:58.41, Marcel Hacker (Germany) 7:11.63, Nicola Sartori (Italy) 7:02.84, Xeno Mueller (Switzerland).
Lightweight Single Scull - Heat Three (Winner to semi-final): 1 Ireland (S Lynch) 7:34.79, 2 Germany (M Falcke) 7:38.03, 3 New Zealand (C Ferguson) 7:46.26. Other Heat Winners: Michal Vabrousek (Czech Republic) 7:28.04, Karsten Nielsen (Denmark) 7:35.74, Gergely Kokas (Hungary) 7:34.50.
Women, Double Scull - Heat One (Two straight to semi-finals): 1 Germany (J Thieme, K Boron) 7:10.77, 2 China 7:14.59, 5 Ireland (D Stack, M Hussey) 7:29.47. Others straight to semis: Netherlands, Lithuania; Austria, Switzerland.
Cycling: Brian Ahern of the Ireland team held onto the lead he earned on Saturday to take the overall honours in the Junior Tour which ended on the Blessington-Brittas road yesterday, writes Jim McArdle.
At Roundwood on Saturday another member of the Ireland team, overall leader, Willie Curtin, came in over 12 minutes down and plunged to 31st and Ahern, who was fourth behind Daniel Lynch, jumped into the overall lead.
Any breakaway attempts on yesterday's final stage of 62 miles from Brittas to Dunlavin and back were nullified by the Ireland quartet and in the bunch sprint at the end, David Heaven, riding with the England team, had his second stage win.
The young Welshman went to the front in the finishing stretch and sprinted away from Irish junior champion Michael Dennehy of Kanturk with Jos van Veldhoven (Holland) third. Ahern was fourth again so at the end of the 272 miles in six stages he had seven seconds to spare over Daniel Lynch with one of the Cycleways mountain bike team, Pat Egan third at 14 seconds.
Ireland beat England by 38 seconds for the team honours while Heaven was best in the points classification and Curtin headed the king of the hills category.
Junior Tour
Overall - 1. B Ahern (Ireland) 10:40:20; 2. Daniel Lynch (Kanturk) at 7 secs; 3. P Egan (Cycleways) 14; 4. R Scott (Clarke's) 20; 5. J Kelly (Ireland) 27; 6. A Rutherford (Clarke's) 36; 7. D Heaven (England) 58; 8. M Garner (Merseyside) 59; 9. M Quigley (Tuam) 1:04; 10. J Van Veldhoven (Holland) 1:05. Points - 1. Heaven 54; 2. M Dennehy (Kanturk) 51; 3. Van Veldhoven 36. King of the Hills - 1. W Curtin (Ireland) 37; 2. B Ahern and D Geary (Kanturk) 24. Teams - 1. Ireland 32:04:19; 2. England at 38 secs; 3. Kanturk 1:32. First year juniors - 1. Kelly; 2, Heaven; 3, Quigley.
Stage five (Saturday), 68 miles from Bray to Roundwood - 1. Daniel Lynch (Kanturk) 2:45:39; 2. Scott; 3. D Ellwood (Ulster CF); 4. B Ahern; 5. Van Veldhoven; 6. Geary all same time. Stage six (yesterday), 62 miles from Brittas to Dunlavin and back - 1. D Heaven (England) 2:21:41; 2. Dennehy; 3. Van Veldhoven; 4. B Ahern; 5. Elwood; 6. G Stapleton (Leinster) all same time.
