Grand League series continues at the Cork regatta

THE UPLIFTING march of the Grand League series continues tomorrow at the Cork regatta at the National Rowing Centre. The breadth of the entry is again notable, but it is the quality of the racing and the buzz it has brought back to the sport which has been most impressive.

Over the last few years the competition among senior eights for the Leander Trophy has been poor. Last season, Cork Regatta had to be cancelled after bad weather, and only three eights, two of them composites, took part in the deffered race at Monkstown and Cork Harbour Regatta for the stunning silver prize.

It will be very different tomorrow. Eight crews compete in the Division One eights final, six of them senior outfits. Corkman Brian Young, the men’s coach at the University of London, is bringing over a crew, and though they are not at full strength because of exams he thought they might be contenders – until he saw the entry. “I thought we might have a crack at it but, realistically, the Muckross and NUIG crews could be a bit strong for us.”

NUIG are the reigning national champions and are determined to come back even stronger this year. But a Muckross crew with two Olympians in Paul Griffin and Seán Casey are a dark horse with thorougbred genes.

Griffin (30), who stroked the Ireland lightweight four in the Olympic A final in Athens and in the B final in Beijing, will occupy that seat in the Muckross boat tomorrow. While he has trained a few times with the Ireland squad this season he has not locked in a decision about returning to international duty. The club eight is “a bit of crack”, he said yesterday, a chance for athletes to give back something to their club.

The senior line-up also includes defending champions St Michael’s, who will also have a double Olympian (Sam Lynch, 1996 and 2004) in the stroke seat, the University of Limerick and Neptune, who looked to be an improving crew when finishing third at Queen’s regatta. The junior crews from St Joseph’s and Presentation are also entered in what is set to be a straight eight-boat final.

Neptune come into the regatta as leaders in the league standings after two Grand League events. Skibbereen might topple them tomorrow at what is almost a home venue for them.

The team which represented Ireland at the Wedau regatta in Duisburg last weekend became victims of the volcanic ash cloud. The last member arrived back in Ireland only on Wednesday night, according to performance director Martin McElroy. He was very critical of the inflexibility of the rebooking system of Aer Lingus. “It was pretty poor,” he said.

The Ireland team for the first World Cup in Bled in Slovenia is set to go into action next Thursday, as the heats for the adaptive events will be rowed on the eve of the main event. Karol Doherty is entered in the arms only single scull and the Ireland mixed coxed four is made up of Karen Cromie, Shane Ryan, Kevin Du Toit, Sarah Caffrey and cox Laura Purdy.

On Friday the rest of the Ireland crews will have their heats.

Lightweight single sculler Cathal Moynihan will be followed into action by the three lightweight women’s double sculls and two lightweight men’s doubles.

The British entry includes three men from the Bann club in Coleraine: Alan Campbell (27) is now established as the leading single sculler in the team and he is joined by Richard Chambers (24) and his younger brother Peter, who turned 20 in March.

Before he joined his older brother at Oxford and in the British squad, Peter Chambers rowed junior for Ireland and bagged a gold and a bronze medal at the Coupe de la Jeunesse in 2008. He will cross swords with his former team come Friday as he competes in the lightweight double scull with Benjamin Rowe. Chambers was very supportive of Bann’s outstanding juniors when they had a successful outing at the British schools’ championships this season, according to Bann head coach Seamus Reynolds.

A novel development in Bled is that the great Iztok Cop, who is retiring, has decided to team up with Norway’s Olaf Tufte to form a Norwegian double. Cop is Slovenia’s most successful athlete, with three Olympic and 12 World Championship medals. He wishes to end his glittering career by teaming up with Tufte, a long-time friend and fierce rival. As a member of Tufte’s club in Norway he is entitled to represent that country in World Cup events.

Back home, Garda Boat Club is running a fundraising golf classic in Westmanstown on June 10th. At the launch on Tuesday the tone was telling: Luke Lacey of the sponsors, St Raphael’s Garda Credit Union, said the union had to take time to decide whether it would be involved this year; assistant commissioner Dermot Jennings, who is president of the boat club, spoke of the real difficulty faced by Garda sportspeople in funding their activities. It is a note struck again and again in conversations with rowing people – crews are not being formed because work is coming first.