Rowing: After a performance which saw them put it up to some of the world's best heavyweight scullers at the Essen regatta yesterday, Sam Lynch and Gearoid Towey are in pole position to form Ireland's lightweight double scull in the run-up to the World Championships and next year's Olympics.
Lynch and Towey finished third in the A final of the heavyweight double yesterday, only seconds behind two Slovenians and a Norwegian who took gold and silver at the Sydney Olympics. Itzok Cop and Olaf Tufte won in six minutes 52.70 seconds, with Luka Spik and Matej Prelog in second in 7.01.01 ahead of Lynch and Towey in 7.05.14.
Cop and Spik were the heavyweight double sculling gold medallists in Sydney and Tufte was in the second-placed boat.
If the Irish could reproduce this sort of form at lightweight they would be serious contenders for Olympic honours themselves. The average weight of a lightweight double cannot be above 70 kg, however, and while Towey is slightly below this weight Lynch is five kilogrammes heavier.
The two, who both have exams pending in Ireland, will now be given the chance to work towards reaching the required weight as a crew, and all going well will represent Ireland at the third World Cup regatta this season, in Lucerne in mid July.
Fiola Foley and Heather Boyle did their own chances of securing a place in an Olympic boat a world of good with a fine second place in the lightweight double final yesterday, following a fifth place on Saturday.
The Kerry-Galway combination will be one of five Irish crews to represent Ireland at the first World Cup regatta in Milan in two weeks. Sinead Jennings will compete in the single.
Tim Harnedy and Eugene Coakley, who finished sixth in the A final in Essen on Saturday, will be the lightweight double, and heavyweight sculler Sean Jacob, who won the B final yesterday, will again get his chance.
The lightweight four will be Paul Griffin, Richard Archibald, Herbie Griffin and Brian Young. A four of Paul Griffin, Archibald, Coakley and Neil Casey finished a creditable fifth in the A final at Essen yesterday. Casey is unavailable for Milan as he also has exams pending.
The bulk of the lightweight squad moves to training camps in Belgium and Sweden in the next month.
