Fox named as assistant coach

Rowing: Debbie Fox, an Australian who worked for the last eight years with the New South Wales Institute of Sport, is the new Ireland assistant coach.

Married to head coach Harald Jahrling, Fox has been a key part of the regime put in place since he took up his post at the start of the year.

Warm and approachable, Fox worked with the NSW Academy from 1993 until the foundation of the Institute of Sport in 1996. Her work in the Talent Identification Programme of the NSW institute helped unearth Olympians such as Tom Laurich and Kyeema Doyle.

Fox, who arrived in Ireland in February, has already gone out to non-rowing schools in Dublin with the aim of finding potential rowers and giving them the means of testing their abilities. Such tests give a big indication of those who may be able to progress in a tough discipline.

She hopes to develop this in her new position, setting up what she calls Rowing Search, which will move beyond the capital. "I am very keen to increase the number of people who at least try rowing," she said yesterday.

Her primary duties will be as assistant to Jahrling, and she will be a "mentor coach" to the juniors and under-23s.

"There are fantastic athletes here," she says.

Some of the best will be on show tomorrow at the Trinity Regatta at Islandbridge - with a few interesting foreign visitors.

Tubingen University, in the news because Pope Benedict XVI taught there, have entered an intermediate coxed four - the link is former Trinity oarsman Uwe Voigt.

Garda and Lady Elizabeth, who battled it out in the men's senior eight final at the Neptune regatta, may do so again in tomorrow's closing race.

UCD, Trinity and Black Sheep from Britain complete the entry. The women's eight is a straight final between Neptune and Trinity.

Free buses will run from the college and there will be a bar and a jazz band. In a piece of talent identification of their own, there will be a special race of eights from non-rowing societies in the college.