The Irish men's lightweight four (M4-) of Paul Griffin, Richard Archibald, Eugene Coakley and Cathal Moynihan placed sixth in their semi-final of the Rowing World Championships in Munich.
They progress to tomorrow's B final where they will race for Olympic qualification against Poland, the Netherlands, USA, Egypt and Australia.
The top five of the six crews racing in that B final will qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The Irish quartet were always going to need a massive performance to qualify for the A final at this regatta between crew changes and injury this season.
The Egyptians flew out of the start leading to 1000 metres with the Irish four occupying sixth at halfway just over a boat length down.
With just 500 metres left it was the British four who had come through to lead with the Italians and Australians second and third respectively.
The Irish were trying to close on world champions China in fourth and Egypt in fifth but as they neared the grandstand the Chinese pushed on and rowed through the Australians to steal third.
The Irish closed on the fifth place Egyptians with every stroke but crossed the line sixth in 6:05.37; five seconds (one and a half boat lengths) down on the winners Great Britain.
