TWO THIRDS of a length gave Ireland's lightweight coxless four a seeded place in the Olympic semi finals yesterday, but it was the manner more than the margin of their repechage win that has now confirmed the four as a serious medal prospect.

Beaten once in their Olympic lead in, the four Tony O'Connor at stroke, Neville Maxwell, Sam Lynch and Derek Holland behind raced within themselves to finish behind the Danish World silver medallists on Monday and went into the repechage as the crew to beat.

They duly stamped their authority on the race from the start, taking a canvass from the rest of the field within the first 20 strokes and controlling the rest of race from the front. There was a cushion of a third of a length over the British four at the halfway mark and, starting the last 500 metres, the Irish were 13 seconds faster than the best split time of the heats. On the line, their lead stretched to two thirds of a length.

The performance establishes the four as a front runner for a medal place, with only the Americans having raced a faster time (5:58.58 against 6:00.99) at this Olympic regatta.

Yesterday's win was tempered by the exit of Brendan Dolan and Niall O'Toole from the lightweight double sculls event an hour earlier. The Irish double came fourth in their preliminary heat on Monday and needed to finish their repechage in the first two against a strong German crew and last year's World silver medallists from Sweden.

Settling into a early lead, the Swedes built up almost a nine second margin as they entered the last quarter of the race. Five hundred metres later, less than half a second separated first from third. Dolan and O'Toole, lying half a length down on the Germans, raised their strike rate to 38 a minute and made a desperate push for second place. The distance closed down for a few strokes before Whrig and Euler responded in kind and finished with half a length to spare and just a canvass shy of the Swedes.

Dolan and O'Toole's time of 6:18.38 yesterday was fast enough to have won either of the other two repechages and provided a measure of the boat's improvement in the short time its crew has had together. Seven weeks ago they finished last at Lucerne, three seconds adrift of the Germans and five seconds slower than the third placed Swedes.

Speaking before the race, the national sculling coach, Jerry Towey, was critical of the amount of time the crew have been allowed on the water after a lengthy selection process that has drawn accusations of favouritism and bad communication.

I think the decision to make the selection was made too late. Two people should have been picked who could perform at the weight soon after the World Championships and it should have been people at their natural weights.