Promising start for Ireland in Munich

ROWING/World Cup Regatta: The Ireland team, made up of four Olympic-class boats, had an excellent first day at the World Cup Regatta in Munich yesterday. The very promising lightweight men's four and the heavyweight four both won.

The lightweight four qualified directly for tomorrow's A final with an emphatic win in their heat. Paul Griffin, Tim Harnedy, Eugene Coakley and Richard Archibald left no one in any doubt as to their class and had almost five seconds to spare over the second-placed crew, Poland 1.

The other heat of the lightweight four was more competitive, with winners France and two German crews inside the Irish time, suggesting these may be the main rivals for the Irish tomorrow.

The Ireland heavyweight four also won in impressive fashion. They qualified along with Italy 2 and Poland, who finished second and third, for today's semi-finals.

Alan Martin, Cormac Folan, Seán Jacob and Seán Casey only came together as a unit at this year's national trials. Their form yesterday greatly pleased the Irish management team.

"They were very controlled and they stuck to their own race plan," said Ireland assistant coach Debbie Fox.

The lightweight women's double scull of Heather Boyle and Niamh Ní Chéilleachair finished fourth in their heat, which they needed to win to qualify directly for tomorrow's final.

Today's repêchage gives this crew a chance to make that final - and another opportunity to prove they can compete at this level as the team travel on to the final World Cup regatta in Lucerne and the World Championships in Japan.

Today will mark the final race at this regatta for Marc Stephens and John Forde. The men's pair are out of the reckoning for an A final place. They finished last in their heat yesterday, but were fourth in the repêchage in the evening, just missing out on qualification for the A/B semi-finals. They compete in the C final today.

On the first day of competition at Women's Henley, Orla Duddy of Queen's University made it through on row-over, but Siobhán Jacob and Nichola Fitzsimon lost out.