ROWING/World Championships: Sinéad Jennings said she wanted to qualify for tomorrow's final of the lightweight single scull at the World Championships by winning her semi-final and she did exactly that in Banyoles, Spain, yesterday.

Ireland's two other contenders, Tim Harnedy in the men's lightweight single and the lightweight pair of Neil Casey and Derek Holland, fell at the final hurdle.

Jennings had predicted that her main rival would be Finland's Minna Nieminen (she finished second), and the Irishwoman knew she would have to move fast in the second half of the race to win. But it wasn't as if the race plan unfolded neatly.

"To be honest I didn't expect to be so far behind at 1,000 metres," Jennings, a slow starter, explained.

Romanian Liliana Niga had set a hot pace, which was covered by Nieminen, who led through the first three quarters of the race. At halfway Jennings was almost four and a half seconds down.

Jennings then began to re-evaluate her priorities: "I thought I'd better be able to reach the final," she said, knowing that third place would still yield this outcome. But her instincts told her Niga had gone out too hard, and when Jennings accelerated she rapidly gained on the leading two and passed them in the final quarter.

Kirsten Jepsen of the Netherlands finished fourth in Jennings's race, and Croatia's Mirna Rajle, last year's silver medallist and also a heat winner, trailed in last in the other semi-final.

If those who had the harder route actually benefited, it was neatly thematic. Jennings won gold in the World Championships in 2001 in the lightweight single but bravely opted for the lightweight double because it was an Olympic discipline. After a luckless few years she failed to qualify for Athens but is now back in the single and in a World Championship final.

Nieminen is also a refugee from the double, as is Bulgaria's Viktoriya Dimitrova, who finished third in the first semi-final. "She says she feels she has got out of jail," said Jennings, laughing.

Nina Gaesler of Germany, who won the first semi-final by less than a second from Britain's Jo Hammond, is the in-form sculler in tomorrow's final, but Jennings sees no reason to believe she is unbeatable, especially as Hammond, who is unlikely to win gold, "put it up to her".

Ireland's other big hopes yesterday were the men's lightweight pair of Casey and Holland, and they lost out by just over a second in their semi-final.

The Irish stuck with the fancied Italy crew early on, but Canada took over the lead by 1,500 metres and went on to win impressively. In a tight, three-way battle for the other two qualification places the Irish were touched off by Italy, who were second, and Germany.

Harnedy found the going too tough in the men's lightweight single, finishing fifth. France's Fabrice Moreau and world champion Stefano Basalini finished first and second and Poland's Pawel Randa pushed out Russia's Denis Moiseyev for the third qualification spot.