Irish battle their way to medal places

Two battling performances by the lightweight men's four and lightweight single sculler Sinead Jennings, which brought bronze and silver respectively, were the highlights of the finals day at the World Cup regatta in Munich on Saturday.

Jennings' coach Hamish Burrell of Scottish club St Andrew said her win "showed character", referring to his inexperienced charge's performance at her first major regatta, but the words applied equally to the four of Neville Maxwell, Neal Byrne, Gearoid Towey and Tony O'Connor, which was brought together at Easter with the firm intention of winning an Olympic place and was competing in its first championships.

The four were the only Irish crew to reach a final in the fiercely competitive selection of World Cup events at the regatta, and in the race they saw Russia, Austria and France all pass them and stake claims for the medals. But a surge over the last 300 metres saw the Irish crew dispute the bronze and silver with Russia and Austria. Russia lost out by three hundredths of a second, while France took gold.

All four Irishmen were delighted, and seemed certain there was more potential to be realised: "We're together four weeks, some of these crews are together four years, so . . .," contributed O'Connor, extending his hands in a gesture that said the future has yet to be created. The Olympic qualifier in Lucerne next month will determine that future. Sam Lynch's challenge in the lightweight single scull came to nought. The race had hardly started when Frenchman Fabrice Moureau fell into the water, inadvertently upsetting Lynch, who took the starter's call for the next race as a call to halt. By the time he realised the race was still on it was too late, and he came last of the five who finished. Lynch had earlier won his semi-final with a battling performance from the difficult sixth lane.

Despite taking second in their final, the Commercial women's lightweight quadruple scull were also disappointed. In a three-boat straight race in which Hungary were never contenders, the Irish chased Britain all the way but could not catch them. Ruth Doyle's day also ended in disappointment with a fifth place in the B final. In the semi-final in which Doyle finished fifth, Jennings led all the way to win. But in the final the 23-year-old Donegal woman was faced with a different sort of challenge. Experienced German Angelika Brand took the lead early and held it to halfway. Jennings refused to relent and rowed through Brand, but could not catch Finland's Laila Finska-Bezerrra, who had taken up the lead and held it to deny Jennings the gold by 2.14 seconds.

Britain's relatively disappointing day was saved by the men's four of Steven Redgrave, Matthew Pinsent, James Cracknell and Tim Foster, although they had only .76 of a second to spare over France.

Meanwhile, at Blessington, the Metro regatta produced a fine victory for Garda, who held off Neptune in the senior eights.

Unfortunately the once-coveted blue riband event of the men's coxed four ended in a row over for Cork BC, but the newest event, an invitation lightweight single scull, produced a fine race which was won by James Lyndsay-Finn.