Both Irish boats in action on the opening day of the final Olympic Qualifying regatta in Poznan, Poland have qualified for their respective semi-finals.
The heavyweight men’s pair (M2-) and the lightweight men’s double (LM2x) raced well to finish second in their respective heats and advance directly to Tuesday’s semi-finals.
The men’s lightweight four (LM4-) do not start their regatta until Monday morning when they line up in their heat.
The heavyweight men’s pair (M2-) of Sean Casey and Jonno Devlin was first out on the water for the Irish this morning.
Two Olympic qualifying spots are up for decision in their boat class at this regatta.
The Irish duo had the Canadian crew in their heat, who after winning gold at the last World Cup in Lucerne, are firm favourites to win one of the qualifying places.
As expected the Candians led from start to finish in the heat with Casey and Devlin stamping their authority on second place ahead of Hungary and Moldova in third and fourth respectively.
The top three crews from each heat progressed directly to Tuesday’s semi-finals, which brings them the benefit of a rest day tomorrow, when those that missed out today must race in the repechages for a second shot at making the semi-finals.
After the race Jonno Devlin said: ‘It was a good row.
'The other two crews in the race weren’t really in it from the start, so we kind of settled onto something that was quite easy; there was no point in killing ourselves so it sets us up quite nicely for the semi-final.’
The lightweight men’s double (LM2x) of brothers; Eugene and Richard Coakley, followed shortly after in their heat.
There was good news for this lightweight double field; the biggest at this regatta with seventeen entries, as FISA (the international federation for Rowing) confirmed that the top three boats in Wednesday’s final will now qualify for Beijing, and not just the top two as originally planned.
The Irish double had a good row in this their first competitive outing together to finish second behind the Czech Republic in their heat, and book a direct semi-final place on Tuesday.
Cathal Moynihan and Eugene Coakley switched seats earlier in the week with Moynihan moving into the lightweight four and Eugene taking his place in the double.
Irish lightweight coach John Holland was happy with how they fared:
‘Our plan for the race worked; to go for direct qualification for the semi-final and have the rest day tomorrow. We had a very good push around the 750metre mark; we stamped our authority on second place before the 1000metre point and that was it.
'They had a good row, they had a good performance. I’m quite pleasedm,’ he concluded.
The men’s lightweight four (LM4-) of Paul Griffin, Richard Archibald, Gearoid Towey and Cathal Moynihan are the only Irish boat in action on Monday.
In their morning heat they face Serbia, Spain, South Africa, Ukraine and Portugal with only the winner to progress directly to the ‘A’ final on Wednesday.
The remaining crews will advance to repechages on Tuesday.
After the qualifying regatta concludes on Wednesday (18th June) there will be a rest day before the final leg of the Rowing World Cup gets underway in Poznan.
The heavyweight men’s four (M4-), the Irish boat already qualified for the Olympics, will race at that regatta along with a number of additional Irish boats.
