Regional trials kick-off season

ROWING: The days of autumn slumber for rowers are at an end. International athletes are back training, there is a regional time trial in Limerick this weekend - and national coach Harald Jahrling is back in the country.

The Ireland head coach had a standing start 10 months ago with all-inclusive trials, but this season begins with a series of regional trials in Galway, Cork, Limerick and Dublin (November 5th and 6th).

"The idea is that people can see where they stand in the overall picture," Jahrling said yesterday. "The regional trials will have no real bearing on selection, but they are a chance for those in charge to see which people they should send on to the next stage."

The national senior camp in four weeks in Cork will be another rung in the ladder which will lead to the selection of an international team at the end of April.

Jahrling wielded a sharp scalpel in the analysis of Irish rowing which he presented to the international committee of the IARU, laying bare a system which was poorly funded from within the sport. He has no apologies to make for his honesty, saying that this is how he works.

"It is important we don't come home from the World Championships and think everything in the garden is rosy," he says. "It will be a long time until we shape up to the really top countries. You can't run an elite programme with the amount of money we have at the moment. You just can't."

The head coach will be in Blessington this weekend working with athletes, and goes on to Galway next weekend, which stages the NUIG Head of the River tomorrow week, which is shaping up as a big event, with entries from all the provinces.

NUIG also have a big involvement in the Head of the Charles in Boston this weekend, with two crews entered in the championship double sculls: Danny O'Dowd teams up with John Forde, and Ciarán Nolan with Evan Ryan. A Cork Boat Club crew is also entered in the Masters eight, and Alan Campbell looks set to take on world champion Mahe Drysdale in the championship singles.

Back in Ireland, the introductory coaching courses in Lee Rowing Club tomorrow and Muckross on Sunday have drawn large interest. While Jahrling and his assistant, Debbie Fox, are the only coaches paid by the IARU, the central council of the GAA plans to raise its full-time coaching numbers to 224, and the number of part-time coaches to 58. The Sports Council and the Northern Ireland Sports Council are providing generous funding.