ROWING NEWS: IRELAND'S FINAL day of competition at the World Rowing Championships in Poznan in Poland had a high point when the legs, trunk and arms coxed four won their B Final by taking on and beating the United States.

Seán Casey’s challenge in the men’s single scull ended with a fourth place finish in the C final, placing him 16th overall.

The adaptive four final was a terrific race. The United States and Ireland, along with France and Russia, overlapped each other for much of the 1,000 metres. In the final 250 metres, Russia and then France dropped back. The United States edged ahead, only to be hauled back at the finish by Ireland, who won by .37 of a second.

Ireland’s stroke, Sarah Caffrey was thrilled afterwards. In the closing stages the US had gained an advantage and their cox was level with Caffrey.

“But then our cox let the animal loose,” Caffrey said, laughing.

The crew of Emer Patten, Shane Ryan, Kevin du Toit, Caffrey and cox Amy Judge have made great progress in less than a year. “In terms of next year, we definitely have A final potential,” said Caffrey.

Adaptive crews are defined by the level of the disability of the rowers. Athletes in the legs, trunk and arms four will generally be able to power a boat much like able-bodied rowers but the boat will need adaptation (hence the name adaptive) to deal with disabilities such as blindness and amputations.

Casey’s race was won, surprisingly, from lane six by Maxim Shauchenka of Belarus. Casey, Peter Lambert of South Africa and Mario Vekic of Croatia formed a chasing group, but Shauchenka maintained a four-second advantage from halfway, with Lambert and Vekic gaining a clearwater lead on Casey by the finish.

Ireland coach Adrian Cassidy said it had been a “pretty hard race”, with Casey making a good start but finding three of the five other competitors with too much speed for him in the second third. He said Casey will go to Australia for the next three months to train.

Cassidy said: “You’d always like to do better, unless you win. But we are where we are. We need to develop a system in the next few years to get ourselves rising higher up the rankings.”

The trunk and arms mixed double scull of Kevin Culhane and Karen Cromie put early leaders Korea behind them as they finished fourth in their B Final. Belarus won from Russia and France in the closing stages.