Rowing: Olympic dream alive as crews make semi-final
Ireland's rowers are hoping to earn tickets for three more boats at the Beijing Olympics with their performance at the final qualifying regatta which opened yesterday in Poznan, Poland.
In their opening heats both the men's pair and the light-weight men's double finished second in their heats to move directly to tomorrow's semi-finals. But with only two or three places in each event still up for grabs, the Irish crews face a desperate struggle if they are to qualify.
It is a reflection of that quality that Sean Casey and Jonno Devlin drew the Canadian gold medalists from the Lucerne World Cup in their opening heat.
As expected, Canada led from start to finish, but Casey and Devlin hung on grimly in second place.
The lightweight men's double now includes a new line-up as Eugene Coakley joins younger brother Richard. Before their race they learned that the biggest entry of 17 crews in their event will be whittled down to three places, not two as originally planned.
The Czech Vetesnik twins dominated the race while the Coakley brothers stayed in second place to earn themselves a rest day today before tomorrow's semi-final.
Today sees the lightweight men's four take to the water for their opening heat in what is surely Ireland's best chance to join the already-qualified heavyweight four in Beijing.
