IARU needs professional coaches - junior convenor

Rowing: About a quarter of the entry for tomorrow's Erne Head of the River is made up of veteran crews - something which makes organiser Robert Northridge rather animated.

The school principal, who does a huge amount of work behind the scenes as the junior convenor for the Irish Amateur Rowing Union (IARU), feels that much of the blame for the decline in the number of coaches of the sport is because of the "middle-aged obsession with training".

The men and women who could be helping young sportspeople progress are instead concentrating on competing themselves, Northridge says.

Combined with the increasing dominance of rugby and the lack of teachers willing to devote time to coaching, rowing is all but dead in a number of schools, says Northridge.

The problem is not limited to rowing, and many sports have found that the only way to replenish the structures is to make their trainers professional.

The president of the IARU, Frank Durkin, feels that this could be a way forward for the organisation.

"I think we are going to have to get in people with qualifications and pay them to do it," he confesses.

The debate comes against the background of criticism of the effectively moribund state of the Ulster Branch of the IARU. The provincial branches have a limited role to play in the running of the sport - Ulster have been the most active of the provinces in terms of running events in the last month - but they do nominate members of the IARU board and the lack of an Ulster Branch is an embarrassment.

Durkin says that he expects the problem to be overcome in the run-up to the IARU a.g.m. next month.

Sports which become more professional find that there is a price to pay, and this could hardly be better illustrated than in the move of the Boat Race in London from the BBC to rival television network ITV from next year. The BBC has a difficulty with fully reflecting the demands of the event's sponsors.

The other big British news this week was the confirmation that Matthew Pinsent and James Cracknell have moved from the pair to the four as they prepare for the this summer's Athens Olympics.

Back on Irish waters, the Cork Head of the River, on Inniscarra Lake, shares tomorrow with the Erne head in Enniskillen. The southern event has also had difficulty drawing senior competitors.

Erne head should, however, feature a serious and close battle at the men's eights level. Lady Elizabeth and Trinity are given the number one and two starting berths, ahead of Lady Victoria, even though Trinity are an intermediate crew.

One of Lady Elizabeth's stalwarts in recent years, Mark Pollock, competes in a marathon at the North Pole this April to raise funds for Sightsavers International.

A race night will be held in Major Tom's in Dublin at 7:30 p.m. next Tuesday, and companies and individuals can sponsor horses, jockeys and owners for 10 each.

[ mark@markpollock.com ]