THE Irish men’s lightweight four of Gearoid Towey, Eugene Coakley, Richard Archibald and Paul Griffin will have to take the repechage route in order to qualify for the semi-finals at the Rowing World Championships after they were unexpectedly defeated by the Chinese four in yesterday’s heat.

Two of Ireland's four boats contesting today's semi-finals at the final leg of the Rowing World Cup in Lucerne impressively qualified for tomorrow's finals.

IRELAND’s lightweight four are targeting World Championship glory after their gold medal success on Saturday.

The Irish Sports Council today has unveiled a €6.17m package of investment into 18 different sports.

Ireland's Sinead Jennings won her lightweight sculls semi-final at the World Rowing Championships in Banyoles in Spain yesterday.

OLYMPIC athletes will receive more than €2m out of a total of €5.3m in funding announced by Sports Minister, John O’Donoghue, yesterday.