Olympian Sam Lynch eased his way through to the semi-finals of the lightweight sculls at the World rowing championships in Cologne yesterday with a runaway repechage victory.
The Limerick man's strong second place in his opening heat earned him easy opposition against competitors from Hong Kong, Japan and Pakistan.
With two to qualify, Lynch was already a length up at 500 metres and second fastest of the day at the distance.
But he still remains displeased with his start. "I'll have to work on it," he said - and his coach agrees. He was two lengths clear of Japan's Takehiro Kiko at the halfway mark and finished 14 seconds ahead with a time of seven minutes 52.43 seconds.
"There's always room for improvement," he said. "I just rowed a controlled second thousand. Happily, it's all coming together," he said.
But international singles newcomer Albert Maher was outclassed by visibly more experienced opposition.
With victory going to current world champion James Coven from the US and with second place taken by World Cup number four Arkis Reinholds of Latvia, Maher finished third - 11 seconds down in seven minutes 30.33 seconds.
A delighted Ruth Doyle had set Ireland's success in motion with second place behind US champion Sherri Kikles in her single sculls repechage. The former Trinity College team captain, who took to sculling just last year, came through strongly in the second half to overtake Chinese opposition.
"I had a poor start," she said, "but I knew the Chinese would go fast on the first 1,000 metres." She had geared down for the day to speed up her second half. The move stood her in good order twice over, for as the Chinese slowed, Doyle went ahead strongly into the wind.
Over a second behind the Chinese at 1,500 metres, she pulled through to take an easy second place.
"I'm really happy with that" she said, and her face showed it all.
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