Rowing: Light four miss out on Olympic qualification by one place

Sun 2nd Sept 2007       
Lightweight Four agonisingly miss out on Olympic qualification by one spot

The Irish men's lightweight four (LM4-) of Paul Griffin (Muckross), Richard Archibald (Lady Victoria), Eugene Coakley (Skibbereen), and Cathal Moynihan (Neptune) have agonisingly missed out on qualifying the boat for next year's Olympics at the World Rowing Championships in Munich today.
 
The Irish quartet finished sixth in the B final this morning; a placing of twelfth overall; only the top eleven crews qualified for Beijing. The crew will have another opportunity to qualify the boat for Beijing at the Olympic qualifying regatta in Lucerne next June.
 
“It's hard, it's very hard. We did our best out there; we couldn't do any more. We went out fast but not too fast; we needed to go or we'd get left. We just ran out of a bit of steam towards the end”, said Killarney’s Moynihan after the race.

With only five Olympic places on offer and six crews racing the competition in this B final was going to be fierce. The Australian four who recorded a semi-final time two seconds faster than any of the other five unsurprisingly took the lead.

The Irish four started well and were lying marginally third after the opening 500 metres. At the halfway point America and Poland had come through to just shade Ireland and push them to fifth ahead of the Netherlands with Australia holding the lead ahead of Egypt but at this stage there was so little between all six that there was no telling who would qualify.

The Irish quartet upped their rate and despite recording the fourth fastest time over the third quarter slipped to sixth place with 500metres to go; a mere two tenths of a second off the Americans in fifth. Paul Griffin’s crew gave it everything they had over the last quarter but were unable to catch the Americans and crossed the line in sixth place to agonisingly miss out on the final prized qualification place.

Australia, Poland, Egypt, the Netherlands, and the USA took the five qualification places in that order.

“You know, we're terribly disappointed; we're all a bit shattered right now. It's a difficult season for this crew; you keep working and you hope that will bring you through. We're going to try and find a way to get this lightweight four back to full strength”, commented Irish head coach Harald Jahrling after racing.
 
The next and final opportunity to qualify boats for Beijing Games will be at the final Olympic qualification in Lucerne, Switzerland next June. There will be two qualification places in the lightweight men’s four on offer, two in the lightweight women’s double (LW2x), and three in the men’s single scull (M1x).

When some of the disappointment of this result has abated the lightweight four (LM4-) can look forward to that qualification regatta with some optimism after finishing one place outside qualification here, similarly with Sean Jacob in the heavy single scull; two places outside qualification at these worlds. The women’s lightweight double of Sinéad Jennings and Niamh NiCheilleachair will need further improvement to be in contention for qualifying after placing sixteenth overall in Munich.

On Saturday, Ireland’s men’s heavyweight four (M4-) of Alan Martin (NUIG), Sean Casey (Muckross), Cormac Folan (NUIG), and Sean O’Neill (St. Michael’s) became the first Irish heavyweight crew in almost twenty years to qualify for the Olympics.
Ends.
Issued on behalf of the Irish Amateur Rowing Union by the Irish Sports Council

For further info:
Sinéad McElroy, Irish Sports Council, Press Officer to the Irish team in Munich
00353 87 6338512 or smcelroy@irishsportscouncil.ie

Additionally
IMAGES: Sportsfile will be distributing images of the Irish in action to picture desks reproduction fee free. www.sportsfile.com or call the Sportsfile desk on 01-4547400

RTE Sport will screen a special OB Sport show on the Irish team at the World Championships at 8.30pm on RTE2 on Monday September 3rd. The programme will be repeated on RTE 2 on Sunday September 9th at 1.45pm.

The site www.worldrowing.com will provide live updates and results during the Championships as well as live video streaming from Thursday onwards. BBC Sport will also broadcast from Munich on Sat 1st on BBC1 from 2.45pm, and Sun 2nd September on BBC2 from 3.30pm.

Sun 2nd Sept. Results
LM4-
Paul Griffin (Muckross)
Richard Archibald (Lady Victoria)
Eugene Coakley (Skibbereen)
Cathal Moynihan (Neptune)
6th in B final, 12th overall

Overall results for Ireland at 2007 World Rowing Championships
M4- Heavyweight Men’s Four
Alan Martin (NUIG)
Sean Casey (Muckross)
Cormac Folan (NUIG)
Sean O’Neill (St.Michael’s)
4th in B final; tenth overall, qualified for 2008 Olympic Games

M1x Men’s Heavyweight Single Sculls
Sean Jacob (Commercial)
Won C final; 13th overall

LW2x Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls
Sinéad Jennings (St.Michael’s)
Niamh Ni Cheilleachair (Offaly/Castleconnell)
4th in C final; 16th overall

LW1x Lightweight Women’s Single Sculls – Non Olympic class boat
Orlagh Duddy (Belfast)
Won C final; 13th overall
 
LM1x Lightweight Men’s Single Sculls – Non Olympic class boat
Liam Molloy (NUIG)
Withdrawn after heat on medical grounds