A WIN by a length for the light-weight coxless four, stroked by Neville Maxwell, and a fourth place for the double scull of Niall O'Toole and Gearoid Towey in the Cologne finals yesterday, clarified Ireland's Olympic selection dilemma.
On Saturday both fours made the final, but came third and fourth to the Danish World Championship silver medallists and the Dutch. Crews were changed afterwards, Neville Maxwell and Tony O'Connor, with a new bow pair of Sam Lynch and Derek Holland, soon showed improvement and after 250 metres were a length in front. At 500 metres there was clear water, racing away from a pack that included all of their likely rivals for the Olympic qualifying regalia in Lucerne next month. The second four of Donal Hanrahan stroking Adrian Smith, Neil Darby and Sean Heaney came in fourth. Niall O'Toole and Gearoid Towey missed out on a place in Saturday's final by just a second with only a few seconds separating them from Brendan Dolan and Emmet O'Brien on both days. It remains for the coaching team to judge whether the fine line between the two is enough for O'Toole and Towey to be selected for the Olympic seats won by the Dolan and O'Brien at the World Championships last year. Sculler Mary Hussey, who was around five seconds off the pace of Belgium's Bredael, finished third in yesterday's heats and failed to make the finals on either day.
At O'Brien's Bridge, a scarcity of senior competition at Saturday's Limerick Regatta saw crews from Killarney demonstrating their town's potential as a future challenger to the Dublin scene.
The Muckross Junior 18 men set the standard in the coxed fours final, finishing a length ahead of their neighbouring club, Fossa. The two Killarney crews later combined forces to make a composite eight drawn against Galway and the Bish. St Joseph's were up by several seats from the start, before cox Niall Daly raised the composite's tempo with a twenty stroke push that by the middle stages of the race had captured a three-quarter length lead. St Joseph's launched a number of counter attacks but lacked the final sprint speed in the last 50 metres and were raced through by Galway, leaving Muckross/Fossa with a length to spare at the end.
Ian Wiley and Mike Corcoran marked their return from Olympic preparations abroad by extending their title records in kayak and canoe at the Cara Irish Open Slalom Championships in Celbridge yesterday.
In his last race at home before Atlanta, Wiley clinched his seventh kayak championship from his Olympic rival Andrej Vehovar, of Slovenia, on his final run by just over six seconds.
Olympic K1 team mate, Andrew Boland, finished fourth behind British international Julian Thew after a disastrous first run.
Corcoran wasted no time in stamping his mark of quality on the Canadian Canoe event, and made his best time at the first attempt. Tadhg McIntyre touched two poles on his way down the course to finish second, 18 seconds adrift from the lead. Stephen O'Flaherty, who won Olympic qualification in Tennessee with Boland a fortnight ago, secured third place.
In the women's K1 event, England's Laura Blakeman beat the Welsh kayakers Nerys Rowlands and Kath Pidgon into second and third. The large English presence also took the K2 title but ended the day second behind Ireland in the Nations Cup.
