Young Irish shine at the top level

A bronze medal at the Nations Cup, the unofficial World Cup for under-23 competitors, and a total of 11 medals - including three golds - at the Coupe de la Jeunesse, a European junior championships, made it another weekend when Irish rowers did the country proud.

The third place for the men's lightweight four in the Nations Cup at Copenhagen was a fine result given the depth of talent at this regatta - in the single sculls, for instance, British competitor Matthew Wells had only recently demonstrated his credentials by being successful at the qualifier for the Olympic Games at Lucerne earlier this month.

And the medal-winning performance by the Irish four yesterday was somewhat reminiscent of the winning performance by the Irish senior lightweight four in that qualifier. With Denmark and France well ahead the young Irishmen battled it out with Germany for third place, and made the decisive push for the line with 250 metres to go.

The ability to up the pace when it is needed has been something the crew of Brian Young, Richard Archibald, Paul Griffin and Eugene Coakley have been working on, with Muckross' Griffin a key man in the equation.

"We needed a Griffin special to win it," said Young graciously afterwards. "The guys rowed brilliantly," contributed coach Sebastiaan Peeters.

This was the first time an Irish four have won a medal at a world championships, even if the world rowing body FISA has yet to fully accredit this one as yet, and hopefully the result may augur well for the Irish lightweight four at the Olympics.

The other Irish performances in Copenhagen were also creditable: lightweight single scullers Fiola Foley (Killorglin) and Neil Casey (Neptune) finished fourth and ninth overall, while Skibbereen's John Wholley was fifth in an open single scull final which was won by Britain's Wells.

Wholley's Skibbereen clubmate Timmy Harnedy was the big Irish success story at the Coupe de la Jeunesse at Sempach in Switzerland, winning gold medals on both Saturday and Sunday.

And Skibbereen's dominance at junior level in this country was also evident in Ireland's other gold, in the women's coxless pairs, with Emily Dulohery and Eileen Wholley - John's sister - teaming up to win their event yesterday, having taken silver on Saturday.

A men's quadruple scull drawn entirely from the west Cork club also won bronze on both Saturday and Sunday.

Offaly's Eimear Moran was also a double medallist in the women's single scull, with silver on Saturday and bronze yesterday, while the men's eight won silver yesterday, having finished fourth on Saturday.