IRELAND'S light weight tour and the double of Niall O'Toole and Emmet O'Brien yesterday won their heats against strong national crews, to reach the first of two finals at this weekend's international regatta in Duisberg, Germany.
The coxless four of Tony O'Connor, Neville Maxwell, Derek Holland and Sam Lynch gave another settled performance, stealing an early lead from the rest of their field and finishing a length in front of second placed Austria. South Africa, who were sixth at the last World Championships, Holland and Germany failed to make the finals.
Emmet O'Brien, who has already been told that he won't be in the final group of three scullers going to Atlanta, was paired up with Commercial clubmate Niall O'Toole for the second doubles heat against Norway. In a swirling wind, they came through by a length in a time of 6:43.45, which only the Dutch managed to better. The double meets the Dutch and crews from Switzerland, Austria, Sweden and Germany in today's final.
The second Irish double of Brendan Dolan and Gear6id Towey lost their heat to the Austrians by two seconds and both scullers will have to wait until tomorrow to prove their w6rth to director of coaching Thor Nilsen. Towey has already raced with O'Toole to finish fourth in Cologne and according to returning squad members, the Sunday pairing of Niall O'Toole and Brendan Dolan has been the fastest combination in training.
The only big name countries missing from Duisberg are the Americans and Italians and it is the last opp9rtunity for Nilsen to view his options. After five weeks away the squad is said to be suffering from homesickness and sweep coach John Holland says a decision about the double will be made after they fly back home tomorrow.
"We should finally be able to pin down which double combination is performing best after the weekend and all the crews the four will be racing at the qualifiers are here. The only team we haven't seen are the French who are going very, very fast." The four faces Austria, Germany Britain, Switerland and their main rivals for one of the two available qualifying spots, France, in today's final.
John Armstrong, who missed out on the Olympic lightweight squad because of injury, races in the single sculls to keep him in the running for the World Championships.
After leaving the exotic glamour of Ghent on a high, UCDL and Commercial return to domestic reality this weekend and travel down to the provinces for the Cork regatta and Fermoy sprints.
Last week UCD's women were trading first and second places with the in all but name Dutch National squad crew from Amsterdam. Slightly stunned by the comparative meatness of the Dutch and British women, the UCD women have started on a new weight gain plan which they take a break from today to race a line up of Becky Quinn, Debbie Stack, Vanessa Lawrenson and Audrey Phelan in the coxless four against Galway and Shandon.
Most of Commercial join what seems to be the rest of Islandbridge on Blessington Lake in preparation for the Metro regatta. Among the few who are travelling south is Senior One sculler Helen Dixon, who has been narrowing the gap between herself and Offaly's Sheila Clavin as the season progresses.
