ROWING/World Cup: It's a big final in an Olympic-class event. The Irish team should win, but so much can go wrong. Not this time. The Ireland lightweight four took hold of their World Cup final here from the first few strokes and never let go until they swept over the line well ahead of the five other crews to warm applause.

Few of the winners in the big events at Lucerne yesterday won with such authority - and this was the lightweight four's first World Cup win. Tim Harnedy (22), Eugene Coakley (26), Richard Archibald (27) and strokeman Paul Griffin (25) are coming into their own - and know it.

Here they had a bone to pick with Germany, who pipped them for the silver at the Munich World Cup last time out after Ireland rowed a poor race tactically.

"This regatta was about tactics for us," said Griffin. "It's been something we've been working on with Harald (coach Harald Jahrling) and we've developed it every race.

"We basically looked to build our second half better. In Munich, we got rowed down by the Germans. This was going to be a measure of how much we'd moved on from Munich."

France won that final, but did not participate here, and besting them and any other challengers at the World Championships in Gifu in Japan late next month is now the aim. "I think this sends out a good signal to the French, who'll be watching this at home," said Griffin.

The crew get a short break at home - and a chance to compete for their clubs at the National Championships next weekend - before travelling on to a camp at altitude at St Moritz and then on to Japan.

Success there will be the next big test, but their first win in a World Cup event was a big step. "We've done the World Cups for the last number of years. We gradually got into the A Finals, got into the medals and now we've finally won.

"It's extremely important, a breakthrough like this, for a group like us, who came up together, came up through under-23s.

"I mean Lucerne is the Holy Grail. It's like the stage win at the Tour de France. This is the place to win. It's going to sustain us, undoubtedly, for the next six weeks. We're very positive."

The emphasis on progress and improvement and setting high standards runs through the Ireland camp under Jahrling.

The men's four and the lightweight women's double scull, both Olympic-class crews, had been told by Jahrling: impress me that you can make the A Final in Japan and you will go - and the indications are both boats will travel. The team will be announced early this week.

The open four put in a storming performance to win their B final by over two seconds yesterday, leaving New Zealand and Germany to fill the minor places.

"We had the best start of all our races here," said stroke Alan Martin afterwards, pleased they had succeeded in closing out the race in the second half, something they had been working on.

Disappointment hung in the air that they had not made the A final. They had finished a close-up fifth in an exciting semi-final on Saturday.

"They paid for the mistakes made in the heats," said Jahrling who has been working on building power in the crew. Not qualifying directly for the semi-final left the crew with three races in less than 30 hours, and they did not have the "substance" for this, the German said.

"Progress" was also the word on Heather Boyle's lips after the lightweight double's B final. Although they ran out of steam a little near the end to finish third to Greece and Canada, Boyle and Niamh Ní Cheilleachair had looked on course for at least second for much of the race.

After a tough year, with a poor performance at the Eton World Cup and criticised trenchantly by Jahrling for missing the A final in Munich, the crew knows it is getting better.

"Throughout the World Cups we've progressed quite a good deal," said Boyle.

Was Munich a turning point? "There was an edge in us after that," she acknowledged.

In Saturday's semi-final Germany's two crews and Poland held the three qualification spots and refused to yield despite a good finish by Boyle and Ní Cheilleachair.

For the men's lightweight eight, a silver medal was not enough to win them a place in Japan. They were given a simple order by Jahrling: win your four-boat A final. So even after a good second to Italy, they looked almost despondent as they waited for the medal presentation ceremony.

"That was the best performance we put in this year. We can't complain," said cox Brendan Farrell. But the dream of the World Championships had gone. "We knew we had to win it." he said.

Even a podium finish in one of the great rowing venues is not considered success in the new Ireland set-up.