Mixed fortunes for Irish

ROWING: On a day notable for the first defeat for the British pair of Matthew Pinsent and James Cracknell, there were mixed results for the Irish at the World Cup regatta in Lucerne yesterday. Liam Gorman reports

At the venue where they memorably won their world titles last year, both lightweight sculler Sam Lynch and the lightweight pair of Tony O'Connor and Gearóid Towey had impressively comfortable wins in their heats to go straight through to the semi-finals.

And the lightweight men's four, stroked by the experienced Derek Holland, also made it straight through to the semi-finals by finishing third in their heat, beating the Swiss into fourth place by one third of a second.

In the women's lightweight double scull, like the men's lightweight four an Olympic-class event, Sinéad Jennings and Heather Boyle had to go through a repechage to make today's semi-finals.

They finished fourth in their heat, in which Marit Van Eupen and Hedi Poot of the Netherlands claimed the only automatic qualification spot. The Irish made it through later in the day in the repechage, but will consequently have a less advantageous draw in the semi-final, although coach Hamish Burrell said he did not expect this to be a big factor.

Burrell confirmed that Jennings has continued to have difficulty with a neck problem, although he said that the crew had been "going well enough" in training.

The under-23 crews which competed failed to make the A and B semi-finals. In the lightweight pair, debutants Dave Mannion and Herbert Griffin were well off the pace in their heat and finished last. They clocked a much better time in the repechage, but failed to take the top-three spot they needed.

The story was similar for lightweight single scullers Alison Downey and Tim Harnedy, who also missed out in the repechage.

In the heats of the men's pair the defeat for Britain's Cracknell and Pinsent was a surprise but not a huge shock - Australians Drew Ginn and James Tomkins, Olympic champions six years ago, had clearly targeted the British,who had looked far from assured in their Silver Goblets win at Henley last weekend.

Back in Ireland, at the National Novice and Junior Championships at Inniscarra Lake in Cork, Garda won the men's novice eights title by three-quarters of a length from Queen's.

Trinity won the women's novice coxed fours from NUIG by four seconds, while Neptune won the men's junior coxed fours and coxless pairs, with Methodist College, Belfast, second in both races.

Skibbereen's junior women showed their customary dominance: the same personnel won both the women's junior quadruple sculls and coxless fours, bringing the club the titles for the third successive year. In the quad they beat Commercial by four lengths and in the fours they defeated Portadown easily.

Presentation Rowing Club won their first ever title when they took the men's junior double sculls title from local rivals Cork Boat Club after a great race.

Niall Byrne of Carlow beat John Griffin of Tribesmen Rowing Club by one and a half lengths to take the men's novice single sculls title.