Bled an early test for World hopefuls

ROWING:BLED IN Slovenia is a new venue to most Irish, but it could play a crucial part in the story of Irish rowing. The predominantly young team which starts its World Cup campaign at the picturesque venue today will fervently hope to return next year for the World Championships, which are the primary route to qualify boats for the London Olympics.

Ireland performance director Martin McElroy points out that six of the 11 athletes who go into action today are in the under-23 classification, and they will get “some pretty tough racing” this weekend.

The under-23 group showed themselves to be competitive at their level at the Wedau international regatta in Duisburg two week’s ago, and “they need to come now and see what a senior regatta is really like”.

Both men’s lightweight doubles are under 23. The Ireland One crew of Niall Kenny and Justin Ryan, who finished second in Duisburg, are joined by Michael Maher and Mark O’Donovan, who has recently recovered from injury.

Both crews seem likely to face repechages today, as both have difficult heats with only one crew going directly to the semi-finals.

The three women’s doubles contain hopefuls Claire Lambe and Sarah Dolan, although not in combination, and again repechages are likely. The team is completed by lightweight single sculler Cathal Moynihan, who is in a four-boat heat.

Ireland’s two adaptive crews were due to have heats last evening, but these were cancelled due to high winds.

The Ireland team for World Junior Championships in early August will consist of a single crew: the hugely-promising King’s Hospital sculler Turlough Hughes.

One of the entrants in tomorrow’s Trinity regatta at Islandbridge is a man at the other end of the experience ladder, with World Championship and World Cup medals to prove it. Eugene Coakley competes in the single scull.

The presence of a big Portora contingent greatly boosts the competitive flavour of the regatta. A crew from the Enniskillen club takes on the hosts in a straight senior eight men’s final.

The same clubs clash in one semi-final of the women’s senior eight, while UCD and Commercial are in the second semi-final.

Last weekend’s Grand League regatta, hosted by Cork regatta at the National Rowing Centre, ran into difficulties of organisation. The wrong competitors were shunted into the various finals of the men’s single scull. Some within the domestic events committee (DEC) are pushing strongly to have more centralised control of the Grand League regattas next season – and for each regatta committee to be required to apply to the DEC for permission to stage a Grand League event.

IRELAND JUNIOR TEAMS

World Championships (Racice, Czech Republic, August 5th-8th): T Hughes.

Coupe de la Jeunesse (Hazewinkel, Belgium) – Men: Pair (R Prodohl, S Hewitt). Quadruple Scull (A Sheehan, G O’Donovan, M Monteith, D O’Driscoll); Double Scull (P O’Donovan, S O’Driscoll). Women: Quadruple Scull (S Dineen, C Fitzgerald, H Nixon, D Walsh).