Chinese spring a surprise on four

Rowing/ World Championships: Ireland's lightweight four must take the repechage route to Friday's semi-finals after falling to a shock defeat by China in yesterday's heats of the World Championships at Eton in England.

The women's lightweight double of Sinéad Jennings and Niamh Ní Cheilleachair also finished second and go into a repechage.

Gearóid Towey, Eugene Coakley, Richard Archibald and Paul Griffin had won every race this season, except the final of the first World Cup regatta in Munich, where they were pipped by Germany.

But Ireland had over five seconds to spare over fifth-placed China in that race, and when they met in the final of the World Cup, in Poznan in Poland, the Chinese finished sixth and last, 4.67 seconds behind gold medallists Ireland.

The Chinese missed the last World Cup in Lucerne, and when they emerged to take on Ireland yesterday their performance was of a different level.

Britain, as is their style, had set the early pace, only for Ireland to move past them by halfway. But China were ahead of both boats. The Irish pushed in the third quarter, but the Chinese stayed ahead and held their lead over Ireland to the end, where they had over three seconds to spare.

Ireland team manager Mick O'Callaghan said after the race the crew "would prefer not to talk to anyone at the moment", but that while the Chinese performance had surprised them, "it hasn't dented their confidence at all", and nothing was won or lost until Sunday's final.

"We think the winners will come from where we expected them to come from," O'Callaghan added.

Certainly, Ireland's repechage tomorrow (11am) should not unduly trouble them - they need only figure in the top two of a race where the other crews are unfancied: Chile, South Africa and Austria.

The other heat winners yesterday were the expected contenders: Germany, Australia and the reigning champions, France.

In the lightweight women's double scull, Jennings and Ní Cheilleachair will also have to find their way through a repechage tomorrow after finishing behind the United States yesterday.

Renee Hykel and Julia Nichols won silver at last year's World Championships in Gifu in Japan, but the honours were even with the Irish this season: the United States had been behind Ireland at Munich but squeezed them out of the bronze-medal spot (by .25 of a second) in Lucerne last month.

Yesterday the Americans led from the start and fought off strong pressure by the Irish over the last 500 metres to hold on to the one automatic qualification spot.

China's Dongxiang Xu and Shimin Yan, who missed Lucerne but had set a world best time at the Poznan World Cup, won their heat easily, relegating world champions Germany to third.

Ireland and Germany are in the same repechage tomorrow (9.54) and would hope to wrap up the two qualification places.

Italy and Uzbekhistan provide the opposition.

In the men's lightweight double scull yesterday, Richard Coakley and Tim Harnedy were never in contention for one of the two qualification spots available from their heat.

Italy's Marcello Miani and Elia Luini took the first impressively, with Austria taking second. Harnedy and Coakley were fifth and last most of the way.

They face a repechage tomorrow (10.18) with Cuba, the United States, China and Turkey. Two go through.

Today's repechages offer three more Irish boats some stern challenges. Single scullers Caroline Ryan (10.30) and Seán Jacob (10.48) will have to pull out the stops if they are to qualify for the A/B semi-finals, which would put them in the top 12 in the world.

The men's four of Cormac Folan, Seán O'Neill, Seán Casey and Alan Martin have ambitions to get to the A final, but they must first find their way through their repechage (12.06).

Limerick man O'Neill came all the way from his new home of New Zealand to get this kind of chance. He will not want to let it go now.

World Championships: Day Two details

Men Lightweight Four - Heat Four (First directly to Semi-Final A/B; rest to repechage): 1 China (Z Huang, C Wu, L Zhang, J Tian) 5:58.48, 2 Ireland (G Towey, E Coakley, R Archibald, P Griffin) 6:01.93, 3 Belgium 6:03.81, 4 Britain 6:04.99, 5 Turkey 6:14.59.

Lightweight Double Scull - Heat Two (First two directly to Semi-Final A/B/C; rest to repechage): 1 Italy (Miani, E Luini) 6:22.62, 2 Austria (J Madecki, S Sageder) 6:27.07, 3 Russia 6:33.41, 4 Czech Republic 6:35.84, 5 Ireland (R Coakley, T Harnedy) 6:36.06.

Women Lightweight Double Scull - Heat Four (First directly to Semi-Final A/B; rest to repechage): 1 US (R Hykel, J Nichols) 6:57.71, 2 Ireland (S Jennings, N Ní Cheilleachair) 6:59.56, 3 Sweden (L Karlsson, S Karlsson) 7:06.04, 4 France (B Dorfman, C Simon) 7:10.18, Thailand did not start.

Today (Irish interest, in lane order): 10.30 - Women's Single Sculls, Repechage One (First Two to Semi-Finals A/B): Indonesia, El Salvador, Serbia, Ireland (Caroline Ryan), Cuba, Portugal.

10.48 - Men's Single Sculls, Repechage Two (First Two to Semi-Finals A/B): Britain (Alan Campbell), Ireland (Seán Jacob), Switzerland, Finland.

12.06 - Men's Four, Repechage One (First Three to Semi-Final A/B): Australia, Portugal, France, Czech Republic, Ireland (Cormac Folan, Seán O'Neill, Seán Casey, Alan Martin), Egypt.

Tomorrow: 9.54 - Lightweight Women's Double Scull, Repechage One (First Two to Semi-Finals A/B): Uzbekhistan, Ireland, Germany, Italy.

10.18 - Lightweight Men's Double Scull, Repechage One (First Two to Semi-Finals A/B/C): Ireland, Cuba, USA, China, Turkey.

11.0 - Lightweight Men's Four, Repechage Four (First Two to Semi-Finals A/B): Chile, South Africa, Ireland, Austria.