World cup rowing silver for Irish four

Ireland’s lightweight four stroked to a World Cup silver medal at the Olympia Regattaverein in Munich this morning, defeating current World champions Denmark for the third time this week but losing out to Olympic contenders Italy.

Skibbereen sculler Timmy Harnedy came in sixth in the lightweight singles final.

34-year-old Dubliner Niall O’Toole, following an impressive national trial at Iniscarra recently over singles, pairs and on the ergometer, claimed the third seat in the Olympic-qualified four on the Bavarian waters and the Commercial man has his first world medal since a singles silver at the 1994 Worlds in Indianapolis.

Indeed the trio that completed today’s silver medallist line-up – Coleraine’s Richard Archibald, 26, Eugene Coakley of Skibbereen, 25 and 24-year-old Kerry man Paul Griffin – all began rowing two years after O’Toole had first burst onto the sculling stage as a 1991 World champion.

The result augurs well for Athens in August and sees further improvement from a relatively young crew, who finished sixth at last August’s World Championships in Milan.

Calm, sunny conditions greeted the oarsmen on the 1972 Olympic course in Munich and the Italians immediately found it to their liking, opening up at 46 strokes for a half-a-second lead on Chile after 500 metres.

The Irish were a further half-a-second back in third and with the Azzurri, in their 2003 composite of Lorenzo Bertini, Catello Amarante, Salvatore Amitrano and Bruno Mascarenhas, clear by one-and-a-half seconds by halfway, it looked like a straight race for silver and bronze.

The Irish quartet made their move at 1200m from lane three, oaring well to catch up and past a tiring Chile by the final 500.

With the Danish again disappointed in an eventual sixth, the Italians swept to gold in 6:19.20, with Ireland (6:21.36) and Chile (6:22.59) closely behind.

Harnedy, a regular member of the four, was never at the races in the sixth lane of his lightweight final, with the 21-year-old beaten but far from outclassed as he finished in 8:03.11, behind race winner Peter Ording of Germany (7:48.42).

Sean Casey continued his development in the B final of the heavyweight class, claiming eighth for his week’s work, finishing second to Olympic qualifier Aly Ibrahim of Egypt by just 0.05 seconds in 7:26.82.

Lynch and Towey took a win in the B final of the heavyweight double, edging out Poland (6:46.27), likely lightweight challengers in Athens, with 6:44.71.

Heather Boyle and Sinead Jennings, both 2003 World Cup medallists, continued their path towards a June Olympic qualification showdown in Lucerne with second in the lightweight double B final, finishing 0.45 seconds behind the USA (7:34.50).

WORLD CUP, MUNICH –

MEN’S:

LIGHTWEIGHT SINGLE SCULLS – LM1x B FINAL: (1) Switzerland (S Steiner) 7:35.26, (2) Austria (U Daxboeck) 7:38.15, (3) Finland (N De Martin) 7:39.55; Ireland 1 (D McColgan) DNS; M1x A FINAL: (1) Germany (P Ording) 7:48.42, (2) Denmark (J Moeller) 7:49.41, (3) Portugal 1 (L Teixeira Ahrens) 7:53.69, (6) Ireland 2 (T Harnedy) 8:03.11 SINGLE SCULLS – B FINAL: (1) Egypt (A Aly Ibrahim) 7:26.77, (2) Ireland 1 (S Casey) 7:26.82, (3) Argentina (S Fernandez) 7:32.41 DOUBLE SCULLS – M2x B FINAL: (1) Ireland (S Lynch, G Towey) 6:44.71, (2) Poland 6:46.27, (3) Norway 6:46.64

LIGHTWEIGHT FOURS – LM4- A FINAL: (1) Italy 6:19.20, (2) Ireland (R Archibald, E Coakley, N O’Toole, P Griffin) 6:21.36, (3) Chile 6:22.59

WOMEN’S:

LIGHTWEIGHT DOUBLE SCULLS – LW2x B FINAL: (1) USA 7:34.50, (2) Ireland (H Boyle, S Jennings) 7:34.93, (3) France 7:42.18