The Ireland team had mixed fortunes on the opening day of the World Cup regatta in Seville yesterday. Fine wins for Sam Lynch in the lightweight single sculls and Gearoid Towey and Tony O'Connor in the lightweight pair took them straight through from their heats to the semi-finals, but these performances were combined with some less satisfactory results.
In extremely hot conditions, Sinead Jennings could only finish second in her lightweight sculling heat and must go in a repechage this morning. The same fate faces the lightweight double of Neal and Owen Byrne, who finished fourth in their heat, and the lightweight four, who finished fifth and last in theirs.
Three of the Irish crews now face four races in three days - the finals are tomorrow - if they are to win medals.
Back home there is real discontent that the year has progressed so far without the appointment of a national coach: yesterday the captain of Ireland's most successful club, Gerry Farrell of Neptune, said that while the present team management were not to blame, the lack of a coach was benefiting neither the elite nor those coming into the sport.
Farrell, along with officers from other clubs around the country, is drafting a team for Henley, but is disappointed that members of the national squad have been ruled out of bounds to him.
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