IRELAND'S heavyweight sculler Mary Hussey won her B final at the Lucerne International Regatta yesterday and will be entered for the Olympic qualifiers to be held next weekend.
Hussey raced a personal best time to beat the German, Angela Schuster, by two and a half seconds after racing through from the fifth position she held at the 500 metres mark. At 1,200 metres, she passed through Schuster and managed to defend her length lead for the remainder of the race, to cross the line in 7:43.04.
The win secures the Olympic Council sanction that Hussey needed to race in the qualifying regatta, and she will now join British scullers Guin Batten and Peter Haining for final preparation.
With only two places on offer for Atlanta, Hussey may have to further improve on her time to beat strong opposition from France, Greece and the Netherlands.
According the director of coaching Thor Nilsen, though, the task is not beyond her. "She was aggressive, she kept up her technique and, if she keeps up the performance, she has a good chance the qualify. It is going to be close and there are a number of people around her capacity."
Nilsen also commented on the double's performance and bowed to widespread criticism at home by conceding that, with hindsight, a selection decision should have been made before the Swedish training camp.
"We should have decided this three, four months ago, but we can't turn the clock back. The rowers have insisted they have been overloaded and I think they are right, but we have to find the best solution.
"I had made it clear to Brendan and Niall before the weekend that if they made the top three I would have sent them, but they didn't. They made the final at least, but the Austrians weren't there so we will have to think again."
Niall O'Toole and Brendan Dolan finished last in their double scull final, having made the last six via Saturday's repechage. Italy won with a time of 6:21.81 seven and a half seconds faster than the Irish boat.
O'Toole, Dolan and the third member of the sculling squad, Gearoid Towey - who came second in Saturday's single scull B final - are expected to arrive back in Dublin today.
Also homeward bound is sculler Emmet O'Brien and the Shannon heavyweight pair of Brian Collins and Fergal O'Callaghan, all three having reached the end of their Olympic roads.
Meanwhile, at Blessington on Saturday, Neptune raised their horizons in advance of next weekend's excursion to London Docklands by finishing the day with Senior 1 wins in the eight and both coxed and coxless four events.
In an eights final, Trinity got the better of the start, but within, a 100 metres found themselves two feet down on Neptune. By the headland, Trinity had already come back twice to claim a three foot lead, but the strokes where short and Neptune where under rating them.
Neptune moved through as they started the final 500 metres, raising their strike to match Trinity's and answering successive pushes in kind to take a length at the line. UCD passed Queens to take third place with the Defence Forces finishing last.
The one two order was repeated later by Colm O'Rourke, Tommy Colsh, Albert Maher and Gary O'Neill in the coxed four final. And in the coxless event, Neptune chalked up a comfortable win with Jason Connolly and Aiden McMahon transplanted directly into the boat from the eight's bow.
Connolly had the extra satisfaction of beating an Irish Under 23 crew for which he had been overlooked. Rowing as a Waterford, Tribesmen and Lee composite, the Under 23s were a canvass ahead at the 100 metre mark but were already slipping. By the headland, they were in third place and being overlapped by a surging UCD crew.
Despite the result, McGlynn expects the boat to be racing at Amsterdam in three weeks to decide their Under 23 World Championship chances.
In the Senior 1 sculls, Lady Victoria's John Armstrong took the lead from the Commercial sculler Lar Collins in the middle third of the race, but Collins came back in the last 250 metres to deny Armstrong his ninth Eblana Cup win by a canvass.
