Bright start in Munich as four Irish boats take semi-final spots

ROWING:FOUR OF Ireland's six crews competing yesterday made it through to today's semi-finals at the World Cup regatta at Munich, and Ireland will have representation in the three targeted Olympic boats.

The newly-formed women’s double of Lisa Dilleen and Sanita Puspure took the direct route to the semis by placing third in their heat, but the fancied lightweight double of Claire Lambe and Siobhán McCrohan finished fourth in their heat, but made up for it by winning their repechage convincingly.

The extraordinarily large entry in the lightweight men’s double – 35 crews – meant Mark O’Donovan and Niall Kenny had to negotiate a heat and a quarter-final, but they made it through with third placings in each. Peter Hanily and Justin Ryan fell out of the reckoning after a sixth-place finish in their heat – in a better time than O’Donovan and Kenny.

Dubliner Michael Maher gave Ireland a fourth semi-finalist, qualifying through the repechages of the lightweight single scull, an “international” event, but Sarah Dolan did not qualify in the lightweight single.

Ireland lead coach Adrian Cassidy was generally pleased with the results, pointing out that last year at this stage of the first World Cup regatta, Ireland crews had only made it through to one A/B semi-final.

The Ireland adaptive mixed four had a fine result in their outing late on Thursday evening, finishing second in their heat to qualify directly for the A Final.

The heats at the regatta were run on a time-trial system, a testing ground for the quick turnaround needed at next year’s Olympic Games. It made for a “pretty sterile environment”, according to Cassidy – but world governing body Fisa created some heat when their web results system crashed. The site had been relaunched as part of the creation of a new image for the sport.

Meanwhile, the forecast of high winds has forced the cancellation of tomorrow’s Metropolitan Regatta at Blessington. The organisers are looking into the possibility of re-staging it this day week.