Coakleys go forward

ROWING OLYMPIC QUALIFIER: IRELAND'S CAMPAIGN in the Olympic Qualifier in Poznan, Poland, got off to a very satisfactory start here yesterday, with both the men's pair and lightweight double moving directly into tomorrow's semi-finals.

In a venue in which attractive landscaping does not quite cover the crude architecture of the old Communist days, the new Ireland double of Eugene and Richard Coakley condemned the home country's Olympic champions Tomasz Kucharski and Robet Sycz to a repechage. The brothers from Skibbereen shut out the men in red before halfway by grabbing second, and held this qualification place to the end.

The Poles, who could only finish fourth in a race won by Czech twins Jan and Ondrej Vetesnik, must compete in a repechage today.

Should the Coakleys move through to Wednesday's final, their chances of landing a place in Beijing have been boosted by the addition of a third qualification place. This class is fiercely competitive, however. New Zealand's Storm Uru and Peter Taylor laid down a marker yesterday with a fast winning time in their heat.

The pair of Seán Casey and Jonno Devlin eased themselves through with a second-place finish behind Canada's Dave Calder and Scott Frandsen, who won gold at the World Cup in Lucerne earlier this month.

"It was a good row," said Devlin. "Having the Canadians in our heat was good. We know they're a fast pair, and it was good to gauge ourselves off them.

"We had a really good start and we settled down to a rate which was good and sustainable. The other two crews in the race (Hungary and Moldova) weren't really in it from the start."

The Ireland crew is improving. "Every regatta, we've been getting better and better," said Devlin.

National coach Harald Jahrling agreed, and was hopeful Casey and Devlin can mix it with most of the contenders for a Beijing spot.

"I don't think they are behind the Czechs or the Italians or the Swiss or the Chinese. They are well behind the Canadians - but then so is everyone else."

While the pair decided in advance not to race the Canadians - "There was no point killing ourselves," said Devlin - the lightweight double were under instructions to give the erratic Poland crew a full test.

"Our plan worked," said lightweight coach John Holland. "We went out with the intention of putting a question mark on the Poles, because they are always liable to say 'ah well, we'll have another go tomorrow (in the repechage)'. That's exactly what they did."

Eugene Coakley explained how it unfolded. "Generally at the thousand metre mark (half way) people have a look to see how they're fixed. We made our move just before the thousand and put the Poles behind us. Then we held on to second."

It was effectively their first time racing together as a double, but it seemed smooth. "If anyone's going to come together quickly as a crew I suppose two brothers have as good a chance as anyone," said big brother Eugene, dropped from the lightweight four in midweek.

Was it a tough few days for him? "It's been fairly turbulent week, all right. I suppose coming out of (the World Cup in) Lucerne I didn't expect to be in the double. As they say in politics, a week is a long time. Things move quickly in rowing too! We're just giving it everything, and focusing on (the double)."

In their heat today, Ireland's lightweight four will aim to see off Serbia, Spain and the crew Holland deems "dark horses", South Africa. Portugal and the Ukraine are unlikely to figure.

TODAY'S PROGRAMME(Irish interest; times Irish) 10am: Lightweight Four, heat one: South Africa; Spain; Serbia; Ireland (Cathal Moynihan, Gearóid Towey, Richard Archibald, Paul Griffin); Ukraine; Portugal.