ROWING: Sam Lyncyh again proved himself one of the elite among Irish sports people when he won gold at the World Cup regatta in Munich on Saturday. Ireland were also among the medals over the weekend at the Coupe de la Jeunesse, the west European junior championships, in Portugal, winning a silver and two bronzes. Liam Gorman reports

Lynch had assumed the mantle of the world's best lightweight single sculler at the World Championships last year and has since repulsed all challenges in impressive style.

He won gold at the World Cup at Lucerne earlier this year and at Munich he dominated all three of his races. On Saturday he repeated his familiar style of getting out in front and staying there, and he must now be a hot favourite to defend his world title at the World Championships in Seville next month.

Michal Vabrousek of the Czech Republic is perhaps most likely to test Lynch next month, and he took silver in Munich, with Ingo Euler of Germany claiming bronze.

Tony O'Connor and Gearóid Towey, the lightweight pair who will also defend a world title in Seville, will be disappointed to have finished second behind Chile in Saturday's final in Munich. Ireland, who were fifth at the 1,000 and 1,500 metre marks, had to pull it out over the final quarter to be sure of bronze ahead of Romania, who finished third.

Ireland coach Hamish Burrell said Towey and O'Connor would be feeling that they made "a little bit of a mistake" early on, but could still have their eyes set firmly on again being crowned World champions come September.

The Olympic Games in Athens in 2004 is also firmly on the minds of the selectors, and the two Irish Olympic class crews, the lightweight four and the lightweight double scull, finished the regatta well on Saturday with a win and second place in their respective B finals.

The four, Paul Griffin, Richard Archibald, Neil Casey and Derek Holland, have now placed seventh in the two World Cup regattas in which they competed, and won a World Cup point for Ireland with their emphatic B-final win.

Eighth is a creditable enough performance for the double of Eugene Coakley and Neal Byrne, who were only formed in recent weeks, in a race won by Spain.

The Ireland team for the Coupe de la Jeunesse had little luck in their travel plans, fog in Ireland forcing an overnight stay in Heathrow on Thursday night. However the junior women's coxless four of Triona O'Donoghue, Aine Harnedy, Karen Hennessy and Grace O'Brien won bronze on Saturday and silver yesterday, and the junior women's pair also took bronze on Saturday.

"They didn't do too badly at all, given we had terrible difficulties getting out here," said team manager Tom Fennessy.