ROWING: IRELAND'S LIGHTWEIGHT four will face two of their main rivals for the remaining Olympic qualification places in today's semi-final at the World Cup regatta in Munich (4.22pm Irish time).
Germany - the fastest heat winners on Thursday - and Serbia will head for the Olympic qualifier next month in Poland intent on landing the two places for Beijing.
The dark horses in today's race, from which three crews will go forward to tomorrow's A final, could be Denmark, who are building a crew on the basis of the one that won gold at the last Olympics. The Danes, along with Italy and China's second boat, came through yesterday's repechages.
"I'd be confident we can get through," said Ireland coach John Holland. "I'm glad we're racing Germany. I'd like to see what they're made of."
The other semi-final features some of the strongest contenders for gold in Britain, France and China's first crew.
Ireland's heavyweight four also avoided some of the biggest hitters in their semi-final (3.34 Irish time) - five of the six finalists from last year's World Championships are in the other semi. Ireland's crew of James Wall, Seán O'Neill, Cormac Folan and Alan Martin will take on two German crews, the Czech Republic, Greece and Croatia.
Yesterday's repechages yielded disappointment for Ireland. The wind favoured units already formed coming into the season, and the Ireland men's pair, women's double and women's lightweight double are new pairings.
Jonno Devlin and Seán Casey had a tough draw, but would have expected to do better than fifth of five, Britain's second crew and the US filling the top spots.
"We didn't really seem to hit a rhythm in the middle of the race and we lost a little too much ground," Casey explained. "There are plenty of good pairs out there and we just weren't able to get it back at the end. The focus now for the next race will be really trying to work on that middle 1,000."
The double scull of Caroline Ryan and Sinead Jennings also needed to be in one of the first two positions to reach the semi-finals. They were third behind Britain and Switzerland with 1,500 metres gone but lost out in the closing stages, where they were passed by Norway, Belarus and Hungary.
The lightweight double of Orlagh Duddy and Niamh Ní Cheilleachair also held third for a time in their repechage, but Greece and Switzerland had the qualification places nailed down from early on.
Single sculler Seán Jacob, who is recovering from illness, was also at the back of the field in his rep.
Ireland's entry for the huge KRSG regatta in Ghent in Belgium today and tomorrow is a little down on recent years - but it it will still be the biggest test of the year so far for many club crews.
TODAY'S PROGRAMME: (Irish interest; Irish times) 9:54 - Lightweight Men's Double Scull, Final E: Algeria, Hungary Two, Venezuela, Ireland, Belarus Two. 10.06 - Ireland, Poland Two, France One, France Two, Belgium, Mexico. 10:12 - Men's Pair, Final D: Bulgaria, Ireland, Portugal. 10:18 - Women's Double, Final D: Ireland, Denmark Two. 11:24 - Lightweight Women's Double, Final C: Ireland, South Africa, Hungary, Japan, Croatia, Mexico. 3:24 - Men's Four, A/B Semi-Final: Greece, Ireland, Germany One, Czech Republic, Germany Two, Croatia. 4:22 - Lightweight Men's Four, A/B Semi-Final: China Two, Denmark, Ireland, Germany, Serbia, Italy.
