ROWING: Ireland's Olympic hopefuls Sam Lynch and Gearóid Towey and the lightweight men's four may compete at Henley Royal Regatta this year.
The move is unusual because Thor Nilsen, who heads up Ireland's Olympic programme, does not rate the regatta as a top-class event - "I don't see Henley as a serious regatta," he said yesterday.
But because of its position in this year's calendar, he believes it could provide a useful focus for his athletes in the run-up to Athens.
Nilsen says a number of Irish crews may be entered for Henley, though whether they will compete will depend on the results in the regattas over the next two months.
Ireland crews will race in Duisberg in three weeks and at the World Cup regattas in Munich (May 27th-29th) and Lucerne (June 18th-20th).
Because Henley Royal Regatta, which runs from June 30th to July 4th, does not offer events for lightweights, Towey and Lynch would have to take on heavyweights in the double sculls event, and Nilsen admits participation would be "a little bit of a gamble".
However, it could be a chance for the oarsmen to sample "the good atmosphere" and "get some races".
The elite athletes return from their training camp in Spain this weekend and begin to sample the very different environment of the Blessington lakes on Monday.
Nilsen believes that conditions in Spain may have been "too perfect", and it is good for a competitor to experience bad ones in training.
"It is very rare for races to be rowed in perfect conditions," he asserts.
The organisers of tomorrow's regattas in Bantry and Portadown will hope for good weather for their events. Both are primarily for juniors, but Portadown has grown at an impressive rate and has a massive entry, stretching all the way to veterans.
The rampant St Joseph's of Galway, who won all the junior men's events at the Connacht Schools' Regatta in Lanesborough last weekend, face stiff competition in the junior 18 eight: Presentation from Cork and Neptune from Dublin join Methody, Portadown and RBAI.
Bantry's Merlin Tanner and Alison Downey, the overall winners of the Cork Sculling Ladder, were due to be honoured in Cork last night.
The power behind the Dublin Sculling Ladder, Micheál Johnston, is not involved in coaching the Ireland senior four, as suggested in this newspaper on Monday. The error occurred in the production process.
