Heavyweight Four have to settle for B final place

ROWING/World Championships:Ireland will compete in the B final of the men's heavyweight four tomorrow after missing out on a top-three place in yesterday's semi-final at the World Championships in Munich.

In a race which was all but two and a half seconds faster than the semi-final which preceded it, Alan Martin's crew, which is on the light side for this level, battled throughout but could not muscle into the action at the very head of the field.

They were pushed into sixth at the death, but their Olympic qualification hopes are still very much alive, as all but one of the six crews in the tomorrow's B final will book a place for their boat in Beijing.

In the cool and dull conditions here yesterday, New Zealand and the Netherlands franked the form that had seen them win their heats. They occupied the top two places all through and finished in that order. But they found Slovenia's young crew biting their tails all down the course, while Ireland and Australia pushed hard behind them, but could not jump the gap.

In the frenetic closing stages Germany, who had never really threatened the leaders, sprinted into fourth, relegating Australia and Ireland to fifth and sixth.

Cormac Folan, the number two man in the Ireland crew, was disappointed but not downbeat. "It wasn't our best performance, and that's a bit annoying. We just have to forget about it and move on; focus on the B final."

The crew's approach to tomorrow's crunch race (9am Irish time) is simple: "We'll go out to win it. You can't go out hoping to come second last. That's not the way to approach a race," added Folan.

Britain are certain to have a four in Beijing, but one wonders will they be favourites. The crew which has dominated this class for three seasons won the first semi-final yesterday, but not by much. In their customary race fashion, they led from start to finish - but as the line beckoned there was a mass charge. France, Italy and the United States all finished within .7 of a second of the winners. None of their times would have gained them a top-three place in the race which followed.

Alan Campbell had a more convincing line-to-line win in the semi-final of the single scull. The Coleraine man, who rows for Britain, gained the upper hand on Olympic champion Olaf Tufte early on and refused to give way. Campbell will have his friend and training partner in London, Mahe Drysdale, beside him in tomorrow's final. The big New Zealander was similarly combative in his semi-final win, giving no quarter to local favourite Marcel Hacker.

The Ireland lightweight four go into their semi-final today (11.10 Irish time) knowing they could curse their luck in the draw. World champions China and overall World Cup winners Britain (with Irishmen Richard Chambers and James Lindsay-Fynn on board) flank Australia and Italy, who won their quarter-finals here. The odds on Ireland or Egypt, in the outside lanes, gaining the top-three place which would put them in the A final have to be long.

However, in snooker terms this could be seen as "a shot to nothing": if Paul Griffin's men put it all together and make the top three to go into the A final and end a troublesome season on a high; if they miss out they still have Sunday's B final and a five-in-six chance of qualifying the boat for Beijing. Orlagh Duddy (9.0), Sean Jacob (9.18) and the lightweight double of Sinéad Jennings and Niamh Ní Cheilleachair (9.48) all have C finals, which determine places 13 to 18.

Men, Heavyweight Four, semi-final two (First three to A final): 1 New Zealand (C Meyer, J Dallinger, E Murray, H Bond) 6:13.99; 2 The Netherlands 6:15.29; 3 Slovenia 6:15.49; 4 Germany 6:16.65; 5, Australia 6:19.51; 6, Ireland (S O'Neill, C Folan, S Casey, A Martin) 6:20.06. Semi-final one: 1 Britain 6:16.44; 2 France 6:16.56; 3 Italy 6:16.68; 4 United States 6:17.11; 5 Czech Republic 6:36.82; 6 Belarus 6:45.94.

Single Sculls, semi-final one (First three to A final): 1 Britain (A Campbell) 7:27.22; 2 Norway (O Tufte) 7:28.14; 3 Sweden (L Karonen) 7:28.27. Semi-final two: 1 New Zealand (M Drysdale) 7:28.55; 2 Germany (M Hacker) 7:30.62; 3 Czech Republic (O Synek) 7:37.50.

Today's programme

(Irish interest, times Irish) 9:00: Lightweight Women's Single Scull, C Final: Orlagh Duddy 9:18: Men's Single Scull, C Final: Seán Jacob 9:48: Lightweight Women's Double Scull, C Final: Niamh Ní Cheilleachair, Sinéad Jennings 11.10: Lighweight Men's Four, A/B Semi-finals: Cathal Moynihan, Eugene Coakley, Richard Archibald, Paul Griffin.