A SMALL Irish squad of two single scullers and a women's pair will hope to make the transition from junior to senior international rowing this weekend when they race at the Under-23 World Championships in Hazewinkel in Belgium.

Gearoid Towey sculls in a lightweight event that Niall O'Toole won twice and which became his stepping stone to Ireland's first senior world title in 1991. The `quality over quantity' approach to this year's championships are intended to give a measure of the squad's development since then.

Debbie Stack, a member of the women's junior squad three years ago, races with Vanessa Lawrenson in a pair that showed international potential in it's first regatta this season. In UCDL colours they won at the B International in Ghent and, according to the women's convener, Mike O'Callaghan, Hazewinkel is the next stage in a paced timetable towards top-flight competition.

"They have dominated domestic competitions and went to Ghent and beat the opposition comprehensively. This is the next step because I don't want them going too far too fast, we are testing the waters at the moment," O'Callaghan said yesterday.

Stack and Lawrenson race against crews from Germany, Romania and Australia in their first heat today and need to win to avoid the repechage. The pair last raced together seven weeks ago entry rules kept them from the Henley competition but Stack is confident that the boat will he sharp enough after pacing men's lightweights during last week's Blessington squad camp.

"We have tried to train with boats that are a bit faster and there has been a huge improvement since Ghent. We've come together a lot and (national sweep rowing coach) John Holland has said we're now rowing more in the international style they look for." Stack adds that they should be capable of a sub 7.30 time over the 2,000-metre course.

Gearoid Towey's record over the last year suggests that he will still he racing on Sunday. At the Junior World's he finished fifth and at the recent Amsterdam `B' International he won both the under-23 and lightweight sculling titles, racing against many of the 21-strong field that have entered Hazewinkel. In his first heat Towey has drawn scullers from Brazil, Denmark and Greece, along with Britain's Tim Male. One will go through to the final and the remainder will have to scrap it out for the two places on offer in the repechage.

Merlin Verwoorn, the Dutch sculler who knocked Towey out of Henley en route to a diamond Sculls title, features among the 15 heavyweights that Neal Byrne can count as company during these championships. Byrne races next week for the national lightweight title and concedes a significant weight advantage to today's opponents. In the first heat, one of those will be Simon Goodbrand, bronze medalist with the British junior world championship quad and Diamond Sculls quarter-finalist.

Absent from the Cup is the coxed four of Paul Flannery, Peter Brady, John Ford and Keith Flynn. The four had shown disappointing form at the Metro Regatta in June and when it returned to Blessington last week for the lightweight squad camp, its performance failed to convince.

Malachy McGlynn, recently installed as under-23 coach, explained that the boat needed to have been within 10 seconds of the Olympic four over 2,000 metre speed tests to hook its journey to Belgium. "They were 14 seconds behind, but initially (Director of Coaching) Thor Nilsen said they could go for the experience. The next day I got a call saying that the International Committee wouldn't sanction them because they weren't going to be competitive.

"Looking back, so much effort has gone into the Olympic crew, we haven't had much time for the under-23s. I've only seen them at Metro and last week all season. We'll take them over to the Home International and if they produce a good time we'll think about the eight for `the World's'."

That World Championship eight was tested out at Blessington and with Tony O'Connor and Neville Maxwell expected to make up a lightweight pair again, the provisional crew includes Sam Lynch and Derek Holland from the Olympic four, their reserves Adrian Smith and Neal Darby, together with Paul Flannery, Peter Brady, Sean Heaney and Owen Whelan.