Germans give in as Irish sweep straight into final

Perhaps the European Football Championship should have prepared us for it, but it is still a shock to the system to see a top-class German team concede before the race is run. And yet here at Lucerne yesterday, the Germans, after a battle royal with the Irish lightweight four for the first place that would send them straight to the final, realised with 200 metres left that their chance of winning was gone and drastically reduced their rate to virtually paddle to the end.

The Irish, with the line in sight, had the luxury of treating the last 50 metres as a training spin. Having been behind at 500 metres (by 0.63 seconds) and 1,000 metres (0.31 seconds) and only leading by 0.69 of a second at 1,500 metres, they won by 13.47 seconds.

Afterwards bowman Neville Maxwell said that the Ireland crew were conscious that the Germans, who they had not raced before, were a strong crew, "but we raced our own race" and never needed to really push the rate beyond 37 or 38 strokes per minute. They realised with 750 metres to go that the Germans were beaten. "Now we need to rest up and get focused for the final," Maxwell concluded.

The Irish four have a day to spare before tomorrow's final but the Germans must go in today's repechage in the hope of joining the Irish and the British in the final.

Unfortunately today's repechage in the men's lightweight double is the only hope for Ireland's Derek Holland and Niall O'Toole after they could only finish third in their heat yesterday.

The pattern was formed early in the race: Spain took control with Sweden pushing them but by half way never looking likely to seize the first place that would put them through to the final. The Irish had firm control of third place, by halfway, but their chances of threatening Spain looked remote - they were 5.29 seconds down at halfway and 26.18 seconds behind as they eased up at the end.

Indeed the Irish, whose poor finish in a heat in the Munich World Cup regatta this year had given them an awful lane draw in the semi-final, slowed up so much at the finish here that the Ukraine crew thought they saw a chance of taking third, although the Irish still had over four seconds to spare over them.

Getting out of today's repechage by taking one of the top two places will not be easy for O'Toole and Holland as Danes Karsten Nielsen and Rasmus Quist and Czechs Michal Vabrousek and Vaclav Malecek are in pole position in this repechage.

Heavy rain, which had been falling for much of the day, eased off in the hour just prior to the start of yesterday's racing, which began at 5 o'clock - but then set in with a vengeance just as the first competitors set off down the course. It was to continue right through the evening.

That first race, the heat of the women's single scull, had some Irish interest in the shape of Finnish sculler Laila Finnska-Bezerra. The Finn, who has had two stirring battles with Ireland's Sinead Jennings this year, beating her into second place in lightweight single scull at the World Cup regattas in both Munich and Vienna, looked like she might be in contention in this heavier discipline as the boats came into sight of the press area.

However, she faded at the end and finished fourth in a race won by American Monica Travel Michini, with Britain's Alison Mowbray second.

Britain gained quick consolation when, after an exciting finish, Matthew Wells gained direct access to the men's single sculls final by holding off fast-finishing Dutchman Gerard Egelmeers on the line to win his heat. Wells had just .22 of a second to spare at the end.

Two definite trends were evident early on and continued through the evening: lane three was the best lane to be in - three of the first six races were won from there - and the US were deadly serious about winning here. The Americans had four entries on the day and all four won, with a men's four which included the former World champion single sculler Jamie Koven in the bow, being particularly impressive.