The first board meeting of the newly formed Irish Athletes' Forum will take place this week writes Johnny Watterson. Following a meeting of over 30 international athletes in Dublin on Saturday, a committee of five were elected to co-ordinate activities. Nick O'Hare (swimming), Neville Maxwell (rowing), Ian Wiley (canoeing), Terry McHugh (track and field) and Patrice Dockery (paralympian track and field) will sit for one year.

The forum is open to all athletes who represent Ireland at international level and differs from the body which the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) are to set up later this month as it will include non-Olympic sports.

Rowing: Garda's senior eight were the overall winners of the Neptune head of the river at Blessington on Saturday, but it was a successful event for the competitors from the home club. Neptune's intermediate eight actually tied on time with Garda in the first run, with Garda's time of nine minutes 42 seconds in the second head decisive.

Neptune's strong quadruple scullan Jacob, Ciaran Lewis, Albert Maher and Neil Casey were second overall, while there was a three-way tie for third between the host club's intermediate eight, Garda (from the first head) and a Neptune eight which featured Olympian Tony O'Connor in the four seat.