Lights go out as Irish finish last

ROWING:Ireland ended their participation at the World Rowing Championships on a downbeat note yesterday when the lightweight men's four failed to qualify their boat for the Olympic Games.

Saturday's fine performance for the heavyweight four had nailed down a qualification place for them, but their lightweight compatriots could not match the achievement. They finished last in the B final when any other place would have done. The one hope now is to land one of the two places at the Olympic Qualifiers in Lucerne next June, just two months before Beijing.

The early stages of yesterday's race seemed promising. Eventual winners Australia took control but Ireland's crew of Cathal Moynihan, Eugene Coakley, Richard Archibald and Paul Griffin were well in contention for second to fifth, in a tight battle with Egypt, Poland, the Netherlands and the US.

The finish left nothing for the Irish support to cheer, however. As the boats swept past the grandstand, the US had a firm hold on fifth and the men in green could not wrest it from them.

The crew, which took silver and bronze in the last two World Championships, has had a season hit by the withdrawal of Gearóid Towey and an injury to Archibald, who deemed this their best performance this year.

"We've put our best foot forward, he said. "We went in with the sixth-slowest time (and) in a hard lane and we did our best."

Standard have improved phenomenally in this discipline, the Coleraine man contended, and the pacy middle 1,000 of the Irish is no longer a decisive weapon: "Other crews are doing it just as well and some are doing it better. What it means is that the pace which has been able to get us out of the pack in other years - this year everybody was up with it. Okay, we were starting to fade a bit, to die a bit (at the finish). But it was the best race we've done this year."

Questions will continue to be asked, however. Do the lightweights need a specialist coach? Is a change of training regime needed? Could the controlling style of the head coach be a liability rather than a strength?

Harald Jahrling himself chose not to speak to The Irish Times, telling the Sports Council press officer he was "terribly disappointed".

Archibald defended his mentor: "I think we had very good coaching this year. I've been under a number of national coaches and I think we've had great success with Harald Jahrling. I feel this is the best coaching we've ever had."

Team manager Mick O'Callaghan spoke about the need to "regroup", and would not dismiss the idea of calling on other personnel.

"I'm totally open," he said. "I have only one agenda, to win a medal at the Olympics. I told the athletes that from my point of view who's in the boats and who's coaching is secondary to winning medals. I'll obviously discuss how we did with the coaches and with the athletes. I have an open mind on where we go from here."

On the credit side for Jahrling is the heavyweight four, which was created by the head coach over the last three seasons and is on the rise.

They stepped on to the bank on Saturday having taken fourth in the B final and 10th overall and spoke of how they were confident in their race plan and it worked out.

A very tight race developed into two separate battles over the final 300 metres: the Czech Republic, the US and Germany fought it out at the head of the field. A length of clear water behind them Ireland, Australia and Belarus gave their all in the attempt to avoid last place. Alan Martin's crew led home this three, Belarus consigning Australia to the dreaded 12th.

"This has been our project over three years," said bowman Cormac Folan. "Harald had faith in us from the start. Other people wouldn't have given us a chance."

Seán O'Neill called the feeling "magic", and Kerryman Seán Casey spoke of having "a few days off", adding, "We'll be back with our nose to the grindstone fairly soon."

The new stars of the British set-up are the lightweight four, who won gold yesterday with the help of the Irish bow pair James Lindsay-Fynn, a London-based Meathman, and Richard Chambers from Coleraine.