Lightweight four finish sixth in Lucerne

Rowing : The Irish lightweight four (LM4-) of Paul Griffin, Richard Archibald, Gearoid Towey, and Eugene Coakley finished sixth…

Rowing: The Irish lightweight four (LM4-) of Paul Griffin, Richard Archibald, Gearoid Towey, and Eugene Coakley finished sixth in today's final at the Rowing World Cup in Lucerne.

A blistering pace was set with 2006 world champions China taking gold ahead of Denmark and France, in silver and bronze respectively.
 
The fiercely contested final saw Germany take fourth, with last year's world champions Britain in fifth, just ahead of the Irish four.

The next outing for this Irish four is the final Olympic qualifying regatta in Poznan, Poland in a fortnight, where they will be racing for one of the two Olympic qualifying spots on offer.
 
Earlier today the heavyweight men's pair (M2-) of Sean Casey and Jonno  Devlin, who are also chasing Olympic qualification in Poland, produced a positive performance to finish third in their B final, ninth overall.
 
The heavyweight men's four (M4-) of Alan Martin, Cormac Folan, Sean O'Neill, and James Wall also recorded a strong performance in their  B final, with a fourth place finish, tenth overall. This Irish boat has already qualified for Beijing but the crew will not be finalised until late June.