The lightweight men’s four (LM4-) of Paul Griffin, Richard Archibald, Gearoid Towey and Cathal Moynihan, the lightweight men’s double (LM2x) of Eugene and Richard Coakley, and the heavyweight men’s pair (M2-) of Sean Casey and Jonno Devlin all face the tall order of having to finish inside the top two in their respective classes, if they are to secure a starting berth in Beijing. The majority of Olympic qualifying spots were won at the World Championships last year.
The men’s lightweight four (LM4-) sees one change from the crew that raced a fortnight ago at the last World Cup in Lucerne. In a change based on form Killarney’s Cathal Moynihan comes into the bow seat for Eugene Coakley, who moves into the lightweight double alongside his younger brother Richard. Twelve crews are entered for the lightweight four with just two qualifying spots available. The Irish quartet raced well at the previous two World Cup regattas in Lucerne and Munich with Germany the only other non qualified boat finishing ahead of them on both occasions. However, the Serbian, Spanish, Greek and Czech crews are all set to be right up there when the places are decided in the final, on Wednesday.
The men’s heavyweight pair (M2-) of Sean Casey and Jonno Devlin placed ninth at the last World Cup regatta in Lucerne a fortnight ago; an improvement of ten places for this new combination on their first outing in Munich. There are thirteen crews entered in their boat class for just two qualifying spots. However, in finishing ninth a fortnight ago the Irish pairing were fourth of those non qualified boats racing. The non qualified Canadian pair actually won gold in Lucerne, so it is a field filled with quality pairs.
The lightweight men’s double (LM2x) of Eugene and Richard Coakley face into the biggest field in Poznan; there are seventeen crews competing for just two Olympic qualifying spots. As a new unit this Irish double will face a stiff challenge to qualify.
After the qualifying regatta concludes on Wednesday (18th June) there will be a rest day before the final leg of the Rowing World Cup gets underway in Poznan. The heavyweight men’s four (M4-); the Irish boat already qualified for the Olympics will race at that regatta along with a number of additional Irish boats.
