ROWING: Here's the deal that will get them into the Olympic final. Be ready at the Schinias rowing centre for 9.00 a.m. - that's 7.00 Irish time - and, over 2,000 metres, beat three of the other five boats. Something Sam Lynch and Gearóid Towey will have gone over in their heads thousands of times on the long, hard road to Athens.

So, it's all laid out clearly before them. Get through tomorrow's semi-final and they can at last race for an Olympic medal. They've come too far to blow it now. Failure is not an option.

But that's exactly what the other five lightweight doubles will be thinking. Italy, Hungary, France, Japan and Spain all want the same from their boats. It's a race all six believe they can win, and if not, at least make the final.

The only thing certain is that by their race time the other half of the final line-up will be decided. In the water at 8.50 will be Slovakia, Poland, Greece, Denmark, the Czech Republic and the US. The top three boats in each race progress to Sunday's six-boat final.

That was the line-up decided after yesterday afternoon's repechages at the Schinias centre - the races rescheduled from Monday morning because of high winds. Yesterday the rough waters had almost completely died down, and little, if any, wind is expected tomorrow.

And there weren't any real surprises. One of the Italian pair, Leonardo Pettinari, is now known to be suffering from a ruptured rib muscle, and that partly explains the drop in form of the world champions and world record holders.

They led up to 500 metres yesterday, but were passed by the Czechs Vaclav Malecek and Michel Vabrousek. Yet the top two boats got through to the final.

The Japanese surprisingly beat the US crew of Steve Tucker and Greg Ruckman in the first race, with the Hungarians edging out Serbia, and Poland beating Spain.

On that basis Ireland and France, two of the four winners in Sunday's heats, were lined up against Italy, Hungary, Japan and Spain.

Irish manager Richard Parr had a simple assessment of what this all meant for Lynch and Towey. "It's exactly what we knew it was going to mean," said Parr. "A tough, hard semi-final. There's no weak boat in there, they're all very strong. But we're very strong.

"So the two boys will have to work very hard to come through this, and they know that. But they're feeling very fit and very well. And they definitely feel like they can go a little better. And I know the other boats will thinking they got it hard by having to race Ireland."

On first observations the Japanese boat appears the weakest. They only managed fourth in Sunday's heats behind France, Hungary and Spain, and weren't expected to progress any further.

"Well no," disagrees Parr. "They're definitely an emerging crew. And the other semi-final is just as tough, so there's no easy way through here."

Even with Pettinari's rib injury, the Irish won't be underestimating the Italians either: "There's no way you can write off the Italians. They're the three-time world champions, and when it comes time to put up or shut up they'll nearly always pull out a good performance."

Also awaiting news on yesterday's repechages was the Irish lightweight fours crew of Richard Archibald, Eugene Coakley, Niall O'Toole and Paul Griffin. They'd secured their semi-final berth with a second place finish in Sunday's heats, losing out to the Australians.

And they'll also be out early tomorrow, going in the second semi-final (7.20 Irish time) against Spain, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and Russia. Like Lynch and Towey they'll need to finish in the top three to get their chance in Sunday's final.