Ireland manager accuses athletes

Ireland team manager Mick O'Callaghan yesterday said certain team members were trying to get rid of him, and the matter had to be resolved. "It has to come to a head," he said, adding that he felt some athletes were trying to blame him for unsatisfactory performances.

O'Callaghan managed the Ireland team which won three gold medals at last year's World Championships in Lucerne, but both on the record and off it a number of that team have made stringent criticisms of him.

The issue is back on the agenda after the Duisburg regatta, where some athletes were angry at a mistake made over the times of races. "I made a silly mistake in Duisburg," O'Callaghan admits, but says some athletes are involved in a "witch-hunt" against him.

"There's an effort being made by athletes to get me removed," the Corkman says, claiming the competitors should become "accountable" for their own performances. "We should concentrate on our own jobs and stop meddling with other people's." O'Callaghan says he is "disappointed with the support of some of the athletes" and "disillusioned" with their commitment to the effort to create crew for the next Olympics.

The team manager, who was also in charge when the Ireland men's lightweight four performed poorly at the Olympics in 2002, says some competitors "are still blaming me for the performance in Sydney. I wasn't in the boat in Sydney. They need to look at who was in the boat."

Two of the gold medallists at the 2001 World Championships, Gearóid Towey and Tony O'Connor, who afterwards criticised management structures, were in the lightweight four in Sydney. Neither was available for comment last night.

O'Callaghan's position has not been helped by his decision to schedule trials for lightweight men for tomorrow in Cork - in direct opposition to the big Metropolitan regatta at Blessington.

Gerry Farrell, captain of Neptune rowing club, contacted the Irish Amateur Rowing Union to convey his strong opposition to the move. "To call a trial at such short notice and on the day of Metro Regatta is at best sloppy and un-professional and cuts across the work of the rowing clubs of Ireland," Farrell opined.

Yesterday O'Callaghan said the entries for the World Cup regatta in Hazewinkel in Belgium had to be in by Monday and this influenced the scheduling of the trials. He said the trial was now "moving to Sunday as far as I am aware".

Metro promises to be a cracking event, with Towey and O'Connor pencilled for the Neptune A crew in the senior men's eight. Two UCD crews, NUIG, University of Limerick, Commercial and the Neptune B crew will take them on. On Sunday Carlow hold their annual regatta.

Meanwhile, FISA has given details of the qualification procedures for the Athens Games in 2002. Crews in the 14 classes will have two chances to qualify: at the 2003 FISA World Championships and at qualification regattas, the last of which will be in June 2004.