Rowing/ World Championships:They did it. Ireland's lightweight four joined the heavyweight four in the semi-finals of the World Championships in Munich yesterday, and both boats are now on the cusp of Olympic qualification.
The lightweight women's double did not make it through, however, and their hopes of Beijing qualification are over for this year.
Yesterday's quarter-final was the defining race of the season for the lightweight four. Twelfth and 19th places at the World Cup regattas in Linz and Amsterdam did not reflect the true potential of a crew which had to adapt to a change of personnel and was then hit by injury.
But potential is only useful if it can be realised, and Paul Griffin, Richard Archibald, Eugene Coakley and Cathal Moynihan did that under pressure yesterday, taking the third place they needed to move into the top 12, knowing that a top-11 place books the boat in for Beijing.
Last year's World silver medallists, France, set a hot pace from the start and led to the finish. Ireland started well and were in second for most of the race. China, the reigning world champions, caught a crab (missed a stroke) early, and it took them over three-quarters of the course before they got in front of the men in green, who had to fight off the fast-finishing Japan to land qualification.
Tomorrow's semi-finals are the next challenge, and the draw has done Ireland no favours: China, Britain, Italy and Australia would all consider themselves medal contenders and Egypt showed yesterday that they can close out a race - they ousted host country Germany in the first quarter-final.
Moynihan (26), who came into the boat for Gearóid Towey this season, was calmness itself afterwards.
The Japanese challenge at the end had not provoked any undue nerves.
"We saw them all right. We just stayed in our own rhythm. We knew that we had them."
The presence of the reigning world champions and world silver medallists in this race was not a source of undue worry - quite the opposite.
"I think it was an advantage. We knew that the best plan would be to go out with the two of them, and try to distance ourselves from (the rest of) the field. But I think the Japanese put in a good performance. They came with us. The plan was to distance ourselves earlier on, so it would be a split race."
He described the semi-final as "tough".
"But we certainly have the pace during the middle of the course. It's just a case of keeping it all together.
"We're getting there," he added. "It's a new crew and we're learning with each race. Last time (in the heat) we had a poor start and we worked on that yesterday. I think we've nailed that now. We probably didn't do as well in the second thousand (of the quarter-final) as we should have, but I suppose we had the qualifying place (by then)."
Coakley spoke of the "ultimate goal" being Olympic qualification.
"It's the old cliché: if you're not in you can't win. And we're in there, in the top 12. I know all the other countries are saying the same - 'we only have to beat one (other crew)' - but that is what it boils down to now.
Ireland's bid to qualify a women's boat ended when Sinead Jennings and Niamh Ní Cheilleachair finished fourth in their repechage of the lightweight double sculls - one place outside a semi-final place.
This crew has struggled with starting well, but yesterday they got it right, and they were just three-quarters of a length down on third-placed Japan at halfway.
Britain and the United States shared the lead until 1,300 metres, but Japan then put in a decisive push, which saw them pass the Americans.
Ireland pushed after 1,500 metres, upping their rate to 36 strokes a minute, and they overlapped the United States in the closing stages.
The Americans held on, however, to deprive Ireland of the sought-after third place by 1.82 seconds.
"We gave it everything we had," said Ní Cheilleachair. "We're really, really disappointed."
Ireland's one chance of having a women's boat in Beijing is the last-chance saloon of the Olympic Qualifiers in Lucerne in June. There are two places for lightweight doubles.
Two Irish crews join Jennings and Ní Cheilleachair in C Finals, for places 13 to 18, tomorrow.
In the lightweight single scull, Orlagh Duddy produced a typically battling performance to win her C/D semi-final. Seán Jacob took third in the C/D semi-final in the single scull.
The only race today for the Irish is another big one: the semi-final of the men's heavyweight four (11:40 Irish time).
Alan Martin's crew can go into Sunday's A final by finishing in the top three - but they face two of the top three in the world in New Zealand and the Netherlands, and three other strong outfits in Germany, Slovenia and Australia.
It may come down to beating the Germans at home.
A huge ask for a gutsy crew.
Day Four: Irish interest
Men
Lightweight Four, quarter-final(First three to A/B semi-finals): 1, France (F Solforosi, J Pouge, J-C Bette, F Tilliet) 6:14.93; 2, China (Z Huang, C Wu, L Zhang, J Tian) 6:17.47, 3, Ireland (C Moynihan, E Coakley, R Archibald, P Griffin) 6:19.58; 4, Japan 6:20.86; 5, Czech Republic 6:29.23; 6, Portugal 7:13.44.
Single Scull, C/D semi-final (First three to C final): 1, Austria (R Kreibich) 7:18.98; 2, China (L Zhang) 7:24.94; 3, Ireland (S Jacob) 7:28.02; 4, India 7:39.44; 5, Belarus 7:58.00.
Women
Lightweight Double Scull, repechage two (First three to A/B semi-final; rest to C final): 1, Britain (H Casey, H Goodsell) 7:23.43; 2, Japan (M Kumakura, A Iwamoto) 7:25.65; 3, United States (W Tripician, J Heere) 7:26.72; 4, Ireland (N Ní Cheilleachair, S Jennings) 7:28.54; 5, Norway 7:40.72; 6, Uzbekhistan 8:00.31.
Lightweight Single Scull, C/D semi-finals (First three to C final): 1, Ireland (O Duddy) 8:21.67; 2, Belgium (E Geentjens) 8:23.15; 3, Spain (L Guillen Cruz) 8:30.52; 4, Russia (D Stepochkina) 8:37.81.
Today's programme
(Irish interest, time Irish)
11:40: Men's Four semi-final: Sean O'Neill, Cormac Folan, Sean Casey, Alan Martin.
