Lone star Lynch on gold trail

Little more than an hour before he took to the water yesterday in a semi-final at the World Championships, Sam Lynch looked calm and collected here as he graciously accept good wishes.

As single sculler, he may be in a sport that can be solitary and he may consider himself something of a loner, but the Limerick medical student is an affable and attractive character, a golden boy of Irish rowing.

Tomorrow he can claim a medal to match that status.

Lynch's win in yesterday's lightweight single sculls semi-final was emphatic: there were early moves by Germany's Peter Ording and Stephen Tucker of the United States, and Ulf Lienhard of Argentina led after 500 metres. Butthe St Michael's man had a two-length lead by 1,000 metres.

Tucker tried to pass with 300 metres to go but Lynch, to a cheer from the grandstands, swept home to win by over two seconds from the American and France's Frederic Dufour.

In the other semi-final reigning champion Michal Vabrousek and Hungary's Tamas Varga followed Stefano Basilini of Italy into the final, suggesting the experienced Italian, the 1998 world champion, may be Lynch's main rival for gold.

Earlier, Padraic Hussey qualified for the C final of the heavyweight single sculls: in a four-boat race he needed to put just one man behind him, and after seemingly toying with the idea of making a race of it - he was second to Britain's Matthew W ells at 500 metres - Hussey decided to conserve his energy and won a race within a race with Benjamin Tolentino of the Phillipines to take third, 12 seconds off the winning pace.

The battle for first place had a curious finish: Wells, having led from the early stages, eased up on the line, allowing Pavel Chourmei of Belarus to pass him. These two and Hussey will take on Austria's Ralf Kreibich, Italy's Marco Ragazzi and Timothy Whitney of the United States, who came through the second semi-final of the day, in the C final tomorrow.

Hussey is nothing if not busy: the 21-year old from Tullamore returns to California, where he is on a half scholarship at the University of California, Berkeley, on Monday. In a matter of weeks has competed at Ottensheim in Austria, where he won silver in the Nations Cup, the world under-23 championships, returned to Ireland for a 10-day training camp before coming here.

The heavyweight single sculls he takes part in can be one of the most brutally difficult in world sport, and this was reflected later. The Olympic bronze medallist, Germany's Marcel Hacker, failed to make the A final, as he could only finish fourth in the first A/B semi-final. Immediately afterwards, Argentina's Santiago Fernandez was pipped for a place in the same final by Australia's Duncan Free, whose late push gave him third by two tenths of a second.

The race was a terrific battle in the heat which required a photo finish. It had its own unique colour in the form of the red-clad band of schoolboys who banged loudly on cowbells to usher local favourite Xeno Mueller to victory. The Olympic champion saw off Iztok Cop of Slovenia.

Two other Olympic champions obliged in the second last semi-final of the day: James Cracknell and Matthew Pinsent won their coxless pairs race impressively. The pair are also attempting to win the coxed pair here, with cox Neil Chugani.

The Irish interest today is in the lightweight quadruple sculls semi-final, where the crew of Owen and Neal Byrne, Derek Holland and Noel Monahan will be hoping to join Sam Lynch, lightweight sculler SinΘad Jennings and the lightweight men's pair of Tony O'Connor and Gearoid Towey, who are already in A finals.

Which might set up a decidedly memorable weekend for the boys and girl in green.