The Irish men's heavyweight four of Alan Martin, Sean Casey, Cormac Folan and Sean O’Neill performed superbly in their semi-final of the Rowing World Cup in Amsterdam this afternoon to claim to a place in tomorrow's A final.
The women's lightweight double of Sinéad Jennings and Niamh NiCheilleachair missed out on a place in their A final when they finished 5th in their semi-final.
Joining the heavy four in the A finals will be Derry’s Orla Duddy in the non-Olympic lightweight single scull
The Irish quartet lay in fourth position after the opening 500metres but it was at that point they made their move charging into second at the halfway point behind France.
With 500metres left the New Zealanders made their move and took the lead pushing the French back and the Irish into third.
That was the way it finished on the line, the Irish holding off a determined German challenge to make this marvellous breakthrough into the A final.
Hosts, and favourites for gold; The Netherlands, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia join them in tomorrow's final at 2.30pm Irish time.
In their semi-final the double of Jennings and NiCheilleachair found themselves four seconds off the leaders after 500m, and despite making their trademark push at the halfway mark they had left themselves too much to do, and finished fifth behind China, Denmark, Germany and Poland.
They will contest tomorrow's B final targeting an improved performance.
