ROWING: The empire of climate is the first of all empires. It may be May, but Montesquieu's ancient saw still cuts deep for rowers looking at a promising weekend which could be ruined by the high winds.
Fermoy's regatta, scheduled for Sunday, has already been cancelled, but the organisers of tomorrow's Cork City Regatta, at Inniscarra Lake, are leaving the decision on whether to go ahead until midday today. "The last thing we need to do is cancel it now," said Denis O'Regan of the organising committee yesterday.
O'Regan said the weather forecast, which had been accurate so far, was for the winds to drop back to 15 knots by tomorrow and "that's quite rowable". Last year the committee opted to cancel early and precipitated a storm of its own - the conditions had moderated by the scheduled day and the winds then forced a cancellation of the rescheduled event.
Cork stages its Ocean to City Race tomorrow week, so the Cork City Regatta cannot, in any case, easily be pushed back a week this year.
Portora's sprint regatta looks set to go ahead tomorrow. Derek Holland, the director of rowing at Portora Royal School, was laying the course in the milling rain yesterday, but said the 500-metre stretch was sheltered and should be rowable.
The regatta is part of the Row of It junior league, which is sponsored by Waterways Ireland, and features a wide spread of juniors from Leinster and Ulster.
Off the water, the board of the Irish Amateur Rowing Union has put a disciplinary committee in place. O'Regan, who is the secretary of the IARU, says the committee will report "as a matter of urgency" and its decision will be made public.
On the international front, Katie Foulkes, an Australian who coxed her country's women's eight under national coach Harald Jahrling, has joined the Ireland coaching team. She will oversee the under-23 and junior teams while Jahrling and assistant coach Debbie Fox travel to the World Cups with the seniors.
The international squad are only days away from their first big test of the season, the first World Cup Regatta in Munich, which begins on Thursday.
The squad trained at Blessington yesterday morning, a venue which was mercifully free of the strongest winds assailing the country, and the mood of the camp was upbeat and businesslike.
The new senior pair of Seán O'Neill and Seán Casey are part of a declared entry of no less than 28 crews in their event in Munich, with four from Australia alone. Under new rules, being adopted experimentally for the World Cups, there will be no repechages in events with entries from 25 to 30, with the top 24 crews from the heats going into quarter-finals and the top 12 on to semi-finals. Crews from 24 to 30 go into an E final, unless there is only one in this category.
Ireland's two lightweight men's doubles at Munich will also be affected, as there are 27 entries.
Selection trials for the Coupe de la Jeunesse, Home Internationals and World University Championships will be conducted on June 24th and 25th, during the Monkstown Regatta at Inniscarra Lake.
