ROWING/World Championships: Ireland have a good chance of claiming places in two World Championship finals today. Lightweight sculler Sinead Jennings and the lightweight pair of Derek Holland and Neil Casey go into their semi-finals today in Banyoles knowing if they perform well they should be in the hunt for a medal on Sunday.
Tim Harnedy has a much more difficult draw in the men's lightweight single, and yesterday the lightweight men's quadruple lost their chance of making the A final when finishing third behind Germany and Spain in their repechage.
The Irish needed to claim either first or second to make the A final. They overcame a poor start to close up on Spain at halfway, but despite a good row they were no match for the experienced Spaniards in the second half of the race. Jennings' graph can continue to rise today.
"That's quite good," she said when she was told of her semi-final draw. There is only one heat winner in the semi, Kirsten Jepsen of the Netherlands, but Jennings reckons the strongest challenge will come from Finland's Minna Nieminen, like the Irishwoman an unsuccessful challenger for an Olympic place in the lightweight double scull.
Jennings needs only to make the top three today (10.40 Irish time) to qualify for the A final, but has higher hopes.
"You always want to win your semi," says the world champion of 2001. She says Wednesday's repechage win was a huge boost. "I'm feeling very good again. I know in the heat I didn't row well, I didn't seem to have the energy," she says, adding that the extremely high temperatures did not help.
She was a little too conscious of the opposition in the first half of the rep, but "the second 1,000 (metres) gave me back my confidence".
In his semi-final (10.50 Irish time) Harnedy will need a similar surge. Or as chief coach Thor Nilsen puts it: "Tim at 105 per cent capacity and he is in the picture."
The world champion Stefano Basalini and two heat winners, France's Fabrice Moreau and Russian Denis Moiseyev, would fancy their chances of collaring the three crucial places - and Poland's Pawel Randa will be in with a shout, especially if Moreau cannot reproduce his stunning performance of Tuesday.
Holland and Casey have a better chance of progressing in their semi (11.10 Irish time), with Germany, Poland and form crew Italy also seriously targeting the first three places.
"If they row up to their own standard they will be around when the medals are distributed," is Nilsen's verdict on the Irish pair.
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS FOR JUNIOR AND NON-OLYMPIC EVENTS (Banyoles, Spain) - Day Three (Irish interest) - Men, Lightweight Quadruple Scull (Two to A Final) - Repechage One: 1 Germany 6:01.40, 2 Spain 6:03.74, 3 Ireland (K McDonald, D Mac Colgain, H Griffin, B Young) 6:06.93, 4 Brazil 6:10.87, 5 Slovenia 6:26.54. Repechage Two: 1 United States 6:02.44, 2 Netherlands 6:04.30, 3 Britain 6:05.11, 4 Denmark 6:13.18.
