In the early hours of Friday morning two of our Olympic class boats were busy powering through to the finals of Rowing World Championships halfway across the world in Japan.
Ireland's Lightweight Women's double (LW2x) of Heather Boyle and Sinéad Jennings came from sixth at the 500m mark, to take second in their semi-final, assuring them of qualification for Sunday's final.
Immediately afterwards the Lightweight Men's four (LM4-) of Paul Griffin, Eugene Coakley, Richard Archibald and Timmy Harnedy rowed impressively to win their semi-final.
In the double the Irish duo knew they had it all to do if they were to take one of the top three places necessary for 'A' final qualification.
They had two heat winners, Australia and Germany to contend with, among others.
The Germans led from the off with the Irish twosome lying sixth, but as they approached the 1000m mark they began to build their pace and pushed past the Italians.
They continued to pick up the pace and drew level with the Greeks at 1500m, with the line fast approaching the Irish again upped their stroke rate, and rowed through the Greeks and then Australians to claim second place, recording the fastest last 500m of all six crews.
They recorded a time of 6.07.42min, a little over two seconds off winners Germany in 6.05.84.
The performance of these Irish women is particularly impressive considering this is the first regatta they have competed in together in over a year.
In the second semi-final Finland, Poland and the United States qualified for Sunday's final.
Speaking after the race Irish coach Harald Jarhling said: "That was good racing by the girls today, they're getting better with every race. Make no mistake they are in an extremely tough boat class, the women's double is the only lightweight category at the Olympics so competition is intense.
“The plan with them is all about finding the phase of the race where they can challenge and build pace, as they have very good race pace."
In the semi-final of the Lightweight Men's Four (LM4-), as expected the Germans tried to break away from the rest of the field from the start, but the Irish four kept pace with them as did the Australian and British crews.
At the 1000m mark Germany were still leading but that was the point at which the Irish quartet opened up and pushed to lead.
They were never headed from that point and crossed the line in 6.05.84min, two seconds ahead of the German boat in second, with the Australians third.
In the other semi-final the French, Italians and Polish crews qualified to set up a fascinating contest on Sunday.
Jahrling was happy with how the Irish four fared: "The most significant thing with the four is that they have made the tactical changes over the last few months that were needed for them to be really competitive at this level.
“They've worked very hard on building a consistent pace throughout the race. Previously they went out too fast and tended to fade before the finish, if they row that way their technique also suffers, falling off as they fade.
“The difference here is they have changed that. They're going well so far."
In the non-Olympic Lightweight Men's Pair (LM2-) Richard Coakley and Siaghal MacColgain placed sixth in their semi-final.
They will race in the B final on Sunday meaning they will at least finish in the top twelve at these championships, a notable achievement for these emerging Irish talents.
