Rowing Weekly column"This is my favourite part," said Gearóid Towey yesterday, taking some down time in Sweden between the rigours of heavy training in Stromstad and the pre-Olympic camp in Zagreb.

"Your training becomes more specific. You're more relaxed. The really hard work is done."

The Corkman, who with Sam Lynch makes up the Ireland lightweight double for Athens, is confident he is over the viral infection that cut short his programme at the World Cup in Lucerne. "I'm noting the difference in how I feel now compared to before Lucerne," he says. "I realise how much more energy I have."

Coach Thor Nilsen, who heads up Ireland's lightweight programme, confirmed Towey is over his setback. "He is training well. Not a problem," he said.

Nilsen feels the lightweight double and the lightweight four can reach Olympic finals, but at that point margins are so small that other factors come into play.

"Technically, they are as well prepared as possible. But as with everything else, we need a bit of luck."

The double must take on possibly the best crew in the world in Italy, and Nilsen said he does not see them making mistakes. But the Irish could still win gold. "Hope is the last thing that leaves the human body. So hope is always there!"

The lightweight four go to Athens with two good performances in the World Cup series under their belts - and the feeling that Stromstad may have given them a crucial lift.

"We definitely made improvements," said Niall O'Toole yesterday. "We knew we could do better in Lucerne (fourth) and even better than Munich (second). We think we nailed a few things that made us faster."

O'Toole won Ireland's first world championship gold medal way back in 1991, but his enthusiasm for the sport is undimmed. Unsatisfactory results in Barcelona (he had hepatitis) and Atlanta, where his selection came very late, have deepened his hunger to do well at an Olympiad.

"The thing that kept me going was the Games," the Dubliner says. "Not winning a medal but getting a respectable performance."

Now married with two young children, he gives huge credit to the support of his wife, Fiona: "If it wasn't for her I definitely would have stopped," he says. "Without her I'd be about 95 kilogrammes, sitting in an office somewhere and looking at the Olympics on television."

At the other end of the age scale, some of Ireland's best young athletes get their chance to impress at the Coupe de la Jeunesse in Italy tomorrow and Sunday and the Home Internationals for seniors and juniors in Nottingham tomorrow.

The Irish team for the World Championships next weekend in Spain is on expected lines. The initial entry was, it seems, not received by FISA, but the error was rectified after an intervention by Nilsen.

"I took it up with them," Nilsen explained. "I don't think the Irish made any mistake."

Lightweight sculler Tim Harnedy is perhaps the busiest oarsman in the country. He goes to the Worlds fresh from the Stromstad camp, and will be one of Ireland's two spare men at the Olympics, along with Neil Casey.