Ireland's heavyweight four will race in tomorrow's 'B' final after finishing sixth in today's high quality semi-final race at the Shunyi Rowing-Canoeing Park.
Sean O'Neill in the stroke seat, Sean Casey, Jonno Devlin and bowman Cormac Folan put in another encouraging row as they clocked 5 minutes, 58.14 seconds.
Beating their heat time by over four seconds, the Irish foursome tried to live with the lung-bursting pace set by France over the first 500 metres.
Great Britain and the French led the field through 1000m, with the USA in third. Ireland, back in fifth in 2:58.88, needed to mount a surge as only three boats make the Olympic final.
Their splits over the closing 1000m were excellent - 1:31.26 and 1:28.00 - but they could not overhaul the other crews, with race winners Britain (5:54.77), the fast-finishing Australians (5:56.20) and long-time leaders France (5:56.73) booking their berths in the 'A' final.
New Zealand (5:57.31) and the USA (5:57.52) will join the Irish at the starting pontoons for tomorrow's 'B' race-off (5.50pm local time/10.50am Irish time).
Considering this Irish crew, under the tutelage of Harald Jahrling, has only been together for the guts of a year and their average age is 28, they could yet become a feature at major championships in the years ahead.
