Irish lightweight four finish sixth in Rowing World Cup final

The Irish lightweight four of Paul Griffin, Richard Archibald, Gearoid Towey, and Eugene Coakley finished sixth in today's final at the Rowing World Cup in Lucerne.

The race pace was blistering with 2006 World Champions China taking gold ahead of Denmark and France, in silver and bronze respectively.

In this fiercely contested final Germany took fourth, with last year's World Champions Great Britain in fifth, just ahead of the Irish four.

The next outing for this Irish four is the final Olympic qualifying regatta in Poznan, Poland in a fortnight, where they will be racing for one of the two Olympic qualifying spots on offer.

Earlier today the heavyweight men’s pair of Sean Casey and Jonno Devlin - who are also chasing Olympic qualification in Poland - produced a positive performance to finish third in their B final; ninth overall.

The heavyweight men’s four of Alan Martin, Cormac Folan, Sean O'Neill, and James Wall also recorded a strong performance in their B final, with a fourth place finish; tenth overall at this World Cup.

This Irish boat has already qualified for the 2008 Olympic Games but the crew will not be finalised until late June.