MARY HUSSEY, Ireland's heavyweight sculler, took the direct route to tomorrow's Olympic qualifying final by going with Plan A and winning her heat from strong international opposition in Lucerne yesterday.
The Estonian, Piret Jamnes seized the early initiative and at 500 metres led the field. At 750 metres, however Hussey began her first push with immediate result.
By the halfway mark she was in second place, in front of the Estonian, who, perhaps deciding to save her efforts for today's repechage, was raced through by Anita Meiland of the Netherlands. At the finish there was clear water, more than six seconds, between Hussey in first place and Meiland second.
"Plan A was to win so that wouldn't have to race again before the final. Plan B was if I didn't win, I wouldn't lose it altogether," said Hussey. "I did a 20 stroke push at 750 metres to go over the halfway mark at a higher rate. Most people put it in at 1,000 but it takes a while for me to wind up. By halfway I more or less realised I would take it, although the Dutch girl came back at me at the end.
Hussey's time of seven minutes 54.58 seconds was the second fastest over the two sculling heats - Celina Garcia from France finished in 7:39 but little can be drawn with the repechages being held today. Apart from the Estonian, Lithuania's Birute Sakickiene and the Slovenian. Romina Stefancic, looks less than stretched by the pace, while Meiland, who until last week was racing in the Dutch quad, put in a good finishing sprint.
Meanwhile, Ireland's coxless four will have to wait until virtually the last race of the weekend to be certain of their qualification. Borrowing equipment presents problems of the sort that denied them direct qualification from last year's world championships, recent form alone suggests they will take either the first or second place needed from the straight eliminator.
In the last six weeks, the four has beaten all five lightweight crews - the Czechs, French, Portuguese, Turkish and Dutch - they meet tomorrow and a fortnight ago they raced their fastest to finish second, by a second, behind the gold touted Germans.
After a week of speedwork, the Irish crew appear confident, relaxed and without any of the weight worries that are troubling some of the opposition here. A day in the Alps broke the routine on Thursday and yesterday's session lasted Just one minute and 25 seconds, time enough to complete a 500 metres piece and leave their coaches in optimistic mood.
The four - Neville Maxwell, Tony O'Connor, Sam Lynch and Derek Holland - have now been in Lucerne for 10 days and are impatient to get the right result. "It's a matter of trying to keep relaxed, said Maxwell yesterday. "We expect the French to put in the biggest challenge and even if we do get ahead, we still need to push it. We want to use the race to set ourselves up as a crew to be reckoned with in Atlanta.
"In Duisberg everything went well except the last 200 metres and we weren't together as a tin it when we raised the rate. If we had won, it might have been overlooked, but as it is we were able to focus on the finishes and on racing much faster.
