Newry test to be a big decider

ROWING: NINETY-EIGHT athletes have been invited to the second national assessment in Newry this weekend. It is the last big selection event before the National Trials in early April. Rowers may again be cut if their performance in the ergometer (rowing machine) tests tomorrow are not judged to be of a high enough standard. Sunday will feature a 5km time trial in single sculls.

While there is a very small selection of senior men, and Cormac Folan has been affected by a back problem, the under-23 group has been impressing at the ongoing camps. Claire Lambe of UCD posted a standout performance in the Carrick-on-Shannon head of the river recently.

The opening of the international season is fast approaching. Martin McElroy, performance director of Rowing Ireland, said yesterday that Ireland will send a team to just two of the three World Cups this season.

Munich, the second of the three events, will be missed out, with teams going to the first World Cup in Bled in Slovenia in May and the final regatta in Lucerne in early July. Bled will feature Adaptive events.

A big proportion of entrants in this weekend’s assessment will be juniors. A team will be sent to the Munich junior regatta in early May, but no decision has yet been made on whether there are athletes of sufficient standard to go to the World Junior Championships in August.

McElroy has consistently pointed out that even a good junior system will yield only a limited benefit to the senior ranks. This can be as low as 30 per cent input even in advanced systems.

“We’re still putting work in there,” says McElroy. “It’s a stream – as in one of the possible streams into senior rowing. Talent ID would be another one (and) university rowing would be one.”

The talent identification system which was put in place in Belfast last month is going well, McElroy says. The endeavour, which is funded by Sport NI and draws on the excellent facilities in Queen’s University, is seen as a pilot project.

Meanwhile, Atlantic rower Seán McGowan was in reasonably good form yesterday despite a battle with difficult winds. “I’m just making some water, which is good news,” he said. He spent most of Wednesday completely overhauling his watermaker, including stripping the motor down, and was revelling in having a dependable supply of fresh water.

“It’s still under pressure – I can hear grinding – but if it goes again I’ll be able to do something with it. I’m happy I’ll have water. If the wind would only turn around now and blow me south instead of north, I’d be fine.”

He had covered 1,164km of the 4,700km trip from the Canaries to Antigua, but his immediate aim is to get further south.

McGowan started out on January 4th and now hopes to complete the journey in around 100 days. “About four days ago my first shark turned up,” he said. “He lurked at the back of the boat in a wave. You could see the ominous movement but he didn’t break the water. All the fish disappeared.

“Then yesterday he came up and rubbed himself on the bottom of the boat. He is about five-and-a-half/six foot, a big enough fella. I was going to go in (to the sea) and clean the hull, but now I’ll just get an extension pole at it. I’ve been in the water enough anyway,” he said, referring to the times he has been thrown out of the boat.