Casey faces tough task to make semis

ROWING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: SEÁN CASEY finished fifth in his heat at the World Championships in Poznan, Poland, yesterday and will have to pull out the stops in a difficult repechage tomorrow if he is to make it to Thursday's A/B semi-finals.

The big surprise in yesterday’s heat was that Mahe Drysdale, the reigning world champion and a bronze medallist at the Beijing Olympics, was tested before he secured the one direct qualification spot for the semis. Cuba’s Angel Fournier Rodriguez had the temerity to lead the New Zealander at the 500-metre mark and stayed in touch even after Drysdale took a lead he would not yield.

Casey and Peter Lambert of South Africa engaged in a battle for fourth through the second half of the race, with Greece’s Ioannis Christou positioning himself in third. Lambert took fourth – and with it avoided the very tricky draw which faces Casey tomorrow (11.54am Irish time).

The first two of four will qualify, but the line-up is packed with quality. Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic is having a dip in form this season – he was beaten into second by Alan Campbell in yesterday’s heat – but the 26-year-old was well worth his silver medal at Beijing.

Jueri Jaanson of Estonia filled the same position in the double scull. At 43 he is a multiple medal winner at World Championship level, and was second in Athens in the single scull. Ariel Suarez of Argentina and Casey complete the line-up.

The original plan was to have quarter-finals tomorrow, but under the rules of world governing body, Fisa, this was replaced by repechages once the number of competitors fell below 24. Twenty-two scullers took part yesterday.

Ireland’s two adaptive crews will make history when they compete this morning. It will be the first time Ireland has entered adaptive crews in a senior World Championships. The trunk and arms double scull is set to race at 9.10am Irish time and the legs trunk and arms mixed coxed four at 9.30am. The first home in each heat goes directly to the A final, with the other crews set for tomorrow’s repechages.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (at Poznan, Poland):Day One (Irish interest) Men's Single Scull – Heat Three (first direct to semi-finals; rest to repechages): 1 New Zealand (M Drysdale) 6:57.12; 2 Cuba (A Fournier Rodriguez) 7:01.80, 3 Greece (I Christou) 7:04.96, 4 South Africa (P Lambert) 7:12.38, 5 Ireland (S Casey) 7:14.27, 6 India (BL Takhar) 7:23.06. Direct Qualifiers: Heat One: Norway (O Tufte) 6:56.45. Heat Two: Britain (A Campbell) 6:54.15; Heat Four: Belgium (T Maeyens) 6:57.78.

Today's Programme(Irish interest, Irish times): 9.10: Trunk and Arms Mixed Double Scull (first directly to A final; rest to repechage) – lane order: 1 Ireland (V Culhane, K Cromie); 2 Brazil; 3 Belarus; 4 France; 5 Israel. 9.30: Legs, Trunk and Arms Mixed coxed Four (first directly to A final; rest to repechage) – lane order: 1 Germany; 2 Ukraine; 3 Ireland (E Patten, S Ryan, K Du Toit, S Caffrey; cox: A Judge); 4 Britain; 5 Canada.