A change of luck for pair

Bad luck and injuries may have hobbled their chance this year in the men's lightweight four, but Neville Maxwell and Tony O'Connor put it behind them in emphatic fashion yesterday by winning their heat as a lightweight pair at the final World Cup regatta in Lucerne.

As a pair, O'Connor and Maxwell have an enviable record: two silver medals and a bronze from World Championships. Yesterday at the Rotsee course they led all the way to beat the Danish pair of Jesper Krogh and Morten Skov by a minute and 46 seconds to move smoothly into the semi-finals.

National lightweight single sculler Sam Lynch also won his heat, again impressively, to qualify for the semi-finals. He was joined by Derek Holland who fought his way through a repechage.

The picture was more mixed for the Irish in other events yesterday: the lightweight pair of Emmet O'Brien and Donal McGuinness also made the semi-finals, although they had to come through a repechage, but heavyweight single sculler Albert Maher had little luck in the draw - the Corkman was third in his heat and third again in the repechage and missed out.

The all-Offaly women's senior double scull of Debbie Stack and Mary Hussey qualified directly for the semi-finals from their heat after a fine performance.

But their counterparts in the men's lightweight event, Niall O'Toole and John Armstrong, lost out. Third places in both the heat and the repechage were not enough.