Olympian Sam Lynch proved his switch to single sculls could well provide dividends with a fast, opening-round heat at the World Rowing Championships in Cologne yesterday.

The Limerick man rowed in the Irish lightweight four which finished fourth in Atlanta but while that side is back building towards the Sydney Olympics and possible medals success, it does so without Lynch.

"In '96 I got on really well," he explains, "but the next year I had moved to Dublin and I was unsettled. The dynamics just weren't there."

A car crash and glandular fever - he blames over-training in his bid to make his comeback - ruined his season and the quartet broke up before last year's world championships.

Yesterday Lynch failed in his bid to win through to the semi-finals when he finished second in his heat behind Swiss Michael Baenninger from Lucerne.

Lynch, surprised by being up with the Swiss with 500 metres to go, pushed for the line. "If I'd been a length or so down I'd just have settled for the repechage," he said, "but I just went for it." He finished just half a second down in six minutes 59.04 seconds. London-based solicitor Ruth Doyle gave a good account of herself in her first world championship appearance when she finished third in the opening heat of the women's lightweight sculls. Victory went to Canadian Tracy Duncan who forged ahead from the start to cross the line in 7:45.63.

The Irish woman stuck to the job, however, to finish third, taking revenge on Italian Sara Baran. Finishing off Ireland's trio of first-day scullers, Albert Maher finished fourth in the heavy division in a race won by former world champion Iztok Cop from Slovenia.

Maher, in the team for experience, was by no means disgraced as he finished with the chasing pack in 7:15.88.