Lightweight four has the pedigree

ROWING/News round-up: Irish rowing is never short of rumours, some of them unfounded and unprintable. The latest is that a lightweight four of Sam Lynch, Gearoid Towey, Niall O'Toole and Eugene Coakley has been doing outstanding times in this Olympic-class boat in training. And this rumour is true.

Lynch is the reigning world lightweight single sculls champion, and O'Toole won this crown in 1991; Towey won gold with Tony O'Connor in the lightweight pair in 2001. This is a crew with world-class credentials.

The one possible fly in the ointment is that Lynch has in the past ruled out rowing in a sweep boat, preferring to target a place in the other eligible Olympic boat, the lightweight double scull. But Lynch may be for turning. His long-term coach and confidant, Thor Nilsen, is now in charge of the lightweight squad and will have a huge say in the decision.

Nilsen arrived on Wednesday for the national trials in Inniscarra, which began on Monday and will run through the weekend.

The statistics emerging already look good - two thirds of the lightweight men taking part set personal bests in ergometer tests, and Towey, the one man who could easily be chosen in either Olympic boat, was the fastest of these, clocking six minutes 10.1 seconds, within hailing distance of the world record for lightweights of 6.04.

Heavyweight sculler Sean Casey clocked 5.57 yesterday, the best on the day. The Muckross man, who reached the semi-final of the Diamond Sculls at Henley Royal Regatta last year, has been heavily critical of the Irish regime in the past but is now back on board.

Ireland's premier single sculler of recent years, Albert Maher, said yesterday he hopes to stay in the picture despite not taking part in the trials because of illness.

The aim of the trials is to form crews for international events, and, at under-23 level, sculler Alison Downey has impressed performance director Richard Parr. "We are probably going to take a good look at her for something," Parr said.