Irish Rowing

There will be two Irish crews in this month's Olympics just like Athens four years ago.

Last time around, the Irish team put on a solid showing with the Lightweight Men's Double Sculls finishing 4th in the 'B' final and the Lightweight Men's Four finishing 6th in their final.

This year, Lightweight Men's Four will be back after qualifying at the last possible attempt by finishing 2nd at the last Olympic qualifying regatta in Poznan in June 2008. Two of the crew will be back, they are Richard Archibald and Paul Griffin, joining them will be Cathal Moynihan and Gearoid Towey who was in the Double Sculls team four years ago. Richard Coakley will be the travelling substitute.

Making their first Olympic appearance will be the Men's Heavyweight Four. They qualified by finishing tenth at the 2007 World Championship. The four shows two changes from the crew that raced in the recent World Cup series. Jonno Devlin and Sean Casey retain their places in the middle of the boat, Sean O'Neill switches to the stroke seat in place of Alan Martin, while Cormac Folan is named in the bow seat in place of James Wall. Alan Martin will travel as the spare man for that boat.

Predictions.

Both crews will be looking to improve on their recent results and are very capable of beating the top teams. With only 13 crews in both categories, the Irish should be aiming to get into the top half and make the A final, if they can achieve that it will be a success as a medal is not likely.