Queen's true students put it up to top crews in London

ROWING NEWS ROUND-UP:QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY and NUIG, the senior eights which provided a thrilling shoot-out in last year's National Championships, whetted the appetite for more of the same this season with impressive performances at the weekend.

Queen’s coach Mark Fangen-Hall has been a shot in the arm for Irish rowing, and he was outspoken about what is classified as a student crew after his top eight finished a remarkable ninth at the star-studded Head of the River in London. They were less than 30 seconds off winners Molesey.

The Englishman said his crew had not had a particularly good row, especially in the middle stages, and could have featured in the top-five. “I think it was a bit of an opportunity missed – but we still made top-10, and our second crew were 32nd.”

These were the best-placed Irish crews.

Fangen-Hall stressed his first crew was the best truly student crew in a field filled with internationals rowing as club or college crews. “Unlike our competitors we’re a closed club. That’s a fully, 100 per cent Queen’s crew. They’re all students.”

He suggested universities which draw on outside athletes were “cheating”, but then softened slightly. “It’s not official cheating, but I don’t think it’s right, I don’t think it’s sportsmanship.

“The benefits that university rowing have are enormous and I don’t think they really need to open it up to let every Olympic gold medallist, or whoever you can get your hands on, in the back door and then say ‘aren’t we great’ when in actual fact ‘we’ is not ‘we’ – it is we and whoever we can get our hands on.”

Asked was this a sideswipe at NUIG, whose top crews are built around non-students, Fangen-Hall said “not at all”. “It’s about every university in the UK that does it.”

Back in Galway, at the Tribesmen Head of the River, NUIG landed the inaugural “national head” title with a slick and powerful performance.

Last year they emerged victorious in their tussle with Queen’s at the National Championships, but they know they need to up the ante if they are to retain the crown. They were never going to be seriously tested on Saturday, but they came home over 40 seconds faster than second-placed Galway Rowing Club.

“We are looking for something special,” said James Wall, who has been a revelation since he moved into the stroke seat. He agreed the crew are probably better now than last season, but they want to get even better. “We are working hard here in Galway,” he said.

NUIG also won the national four’s head title. Sam Lynch teamed up with Kevin O’Connor to take the senior doubles crown at the head, which was run in good conditions. One of the big talking points was a crash which saw University of Limerick’s novice eight lose a man into the water.