Rowing: There was more success for Irish rowers today at the World Championships in Eton, England, as both the men and women progressed to their respective semi-finals.
The women's lightweight double of Sinéad Jennings and Niamh NiCheilleachair were first to progress with a convincing three second win over Germany.
The pair finished in a time of 7minutes 17.26 seconds, ahead of Germany (7:20.96), Italy (7:26.89) and Uzbekistan (7:52.36), and will contest their semi-final tomorrow.
The men's lightweight four were similarly convincing as they saw off the close challenge of South Africa.
Gearoid Towey, Eugene Coakley, Richard Archibald and Paul Griffin finished in a time of 6:12:91, with the South Africans three seconds back ahead of Austria and Chile.
The quartet will row in the semi-final on Friday.
The lightweight doubles pair of Tim Harnedy and Richard Coakley missed out on a semi-final berth when finishing third behind Cub and the USA in their repechage.
Yesterday the men's heavyweight four progressed to the semi-final
This year's four of Cormac Folan (23), Seán O'Neill (26), Seán Casey (28) and Alan Martin (25) only came together in this formation for the final World Cup in Lucerne, where they finished eighth, but they feel the recent high-altitude camp in St Moritz and training in Cork have brought them along. "It's coming together more and more," said Casey after yesterday's race.
They moved into the semi-finals (the world's top 12) with a confident row in yesterday's repechage which saw them take the second of the three qualification places, behind France and ahead of the Czech Republic.