The Irish men’s fours rowing team has made it through to the semi-final by coming third in their quarter-final.

ANOTHER piece of the Irish Olympic jigsaw was put in place for Beijing yesterday with confirmation of the composition of the two rowing crews.

In the 'B' final of the men's heavyweight four (M4-) at the final leg of the Rowing World Cup in Poznan, Poland this morning the Irish quartet of James Wall, Alan Martin, Cormac Folan, and Sean O'Neill finished fifth; an overall placing of eleventh at this, the last regatta before the Olympic Games.

IRELAND has secured a second boat at the Olympics as the Irish men’s lightweight four (LM4-) put in an impressive performance in the final qualifying regatta in Poznan, Poland yesterday to confirm their place in Beijing.

Ireland’s heavyweight pair (M2-) of Sean Casey and Jonno Devlin, and lightweight double (LM2x) of Eugene and Richard Coakley both missed out on a place in tomorrow’s finals of the Olympic qualifier, when finishing fourth and fifth respectively in their semi-finals today.

At the final Olympic qualifying regatta in Poznan, Poland this morning the Irish men's lightweight four (LM4-) of Paul Griffin, Richard Archibald, Gearoid Towey and Cathal Moynihan won their heat to advance directly to Wednesday's final.

On semi-final day at the Rowing World Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland, the men’s lightweight four fared best of the Irish in action, finishing third in their semi-finals to advance to tomorrow’s A final.

An Irish rowing team of seven boats has been announced to compete in the opening regatta of the FISA World Cup series next week at the 1972 Olympic regatta course in Munich, Germany.