The men’s heavyweight four of Alan Martin, Sean Casey, Cormac Folan and Sean O’Neill fared the best of the Irish in the repechages at the Rowing World Cup today, winning theirs in fine style to claim their place in tomorrow afternoon’s semi-finals.
The quartet were headed by the Greek foursome until the last quarter of the 2000 metre test when the Irish pushed through them and took the win on the line with almost a second to spare.
The heavy four join Derry’s Orlagh Duddy in tomorrow’s semi-finals after she qualified directly from her lightweight single scull heat this morning.
There was disappointment for Ireland’s leading lightweight boats - the men’s four and the women’s double - who both placed fifth in their respective repechages and in doing so failed to qualify for the semi-finals at this regatta.
After racing Irish team manager Mick O’Callaghan said: ‘The heavy four raced well, it was pleasing to see their strong finish and while we are disappointed not to have the lightweight Olympic class boats make the semi-finals we need to see how the various crews fare in the minor finals tomorrow before we begin the analysis.
‘We are obviously pleased to have two boats in the semi-finals and with a favourable draw we are confident they can advance to the A finals.’
The lightweight men’s four of Paul Griffin, Liam Molloy, Eugene Coakley, and Cathal Moynihan were racing together for the first time today as this crew, with Molloy taking the seat of Richard Archibald who is sidelined with injury.
The foursome started promisingly lying second after 500metres but Spain and the Czech Republic had headed them at the halfway point with Egypt safely leading.
The Irish kept pushing over the second half of the race but failed to make the necessary impression. They will contest the D final in the morning.
The women’s double of Jennings and NiCheilleachair never got into their racing rhythm in their afternoon repechage under the blistering heat of the Swiss sun and will now line up in the C final tomorrow morning in need of an improved performance.
Both Ireland’s single scullers narrowly missed out on qualification for the semi-finals. Richard Coakley and Caroline Ryan both finished third in their respective repechages and will now contest C finals tomorrow morning.
The heavyweight men’s quad of Paul Murray, Paul O’Brien, Sean Jacob and James Wall found the going tough in their repechage and placed fifth also sending them to a C final.
Please note: The repechages are the second chance for the crews who do not automatically qualify through the heats to advance to the semi-finals.
FRI 13th RESULTS & SCHEDULE FOR SAT 14th
LUCERNE WORLD CUP, July 13th – 15th
(All times quoted are Irish time)
LW2x Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls, 5th in repechage, C final @ 9.48am
Sinéad Jennings (St. Michael’s)
Niamh NiCheilleachair (Castleconnell)
LW1x Lightweight Women’s Single Sculls, 2nd in heat, semi-finals @ 8am
Orlagh Duddy (Belfast)
W1x Heavyweight Women’s Single Sculls, 3rd in rep, C final @ 9.18am
Caroline Ryan (Garda)
LM4- Lightweight Men’s Four, 5th in rep, D final @ 9am
Paul Griffin (Muckross)
Liam Molloy (NUIG)
Eugene Coakley (Skibbereen)
Cathal Moynihan (Neptune)
LM1x Lightweight Men’s Single Sculls, 3rd in rep, C final @ 9.12am
Richard Coakley (Skibbereen)
M4- Heavyweight Men’s Four, Won rep, semi-finals @ 3.30pm
Alan Martin (NUIG)
Sean Casey (Muckross)
Cormac Folan (NUIG)
Sean O’Neill (St. Michael’s)
M4x Men’s Heavyweight Quad, 5th in rep, C final @10.06am
Paul Murray (NUIG)
Paul O’Brien (Garda)
Sean Jacob (Commercial)
James Wall (NUIG)
