Irish strike double gold, silver

"It was a good day out," said team manager Michael O'Callaghan with some understatement after Ireland emerged with two gold and two silver medals from the final World Cup regatta of the year in Munich yesterday.

Limerick man Sam Lynch was again one of the stars of the show as he confidently added a second gold medal to the one he won on his only other World Cup outing this year, at Seville.

Leading by halfway he stretched the margin to over three seconds at the end over Michal Vabrousek of the Czech Republic. The Irishman must now have a real chance of taking gold at the World Championships in Lucerne next month.

The lightweight pair of Gear≤id Towey and Tony O'Connor matched Lynch's gold - but with a contrasting performance. They took the lead only in the final 500 metres and had to fight off Miguel Cerda and Cristian Yantani of Chile to win. Britain's Nick Strange and Peter Haining. who had led early on, took bronze by less than half a second from the Netherlands.

SinΘad Jennings added the first Irish silver in the lightweight single sculls, putting in a good final charge but not being able to match a rival from last year, Laila Finska-Bezzera of Finland. The lightweight pair of Audrey Phelan and Becky Quinn also won silver, in their three-boat final.

O'Callaghan's asserted that Ireland now have "three boats on target" for medals in the World Championships. While none are in Olympic categories, the focus will switch next year to preparing for Athens 2004.

In the more immediate future, the under-23 men's lightweight four which finished sixth in the B final will hope to do build on this to take a medal in the Nations Cup in Linz in Austria in a fortnight.