What a momentous week for rowing in this country: a crew with a place booked at the Olympic Games, medals including gold at the final World Cup meet at Lucerne, and an outstanding National Championships in Cork.

But the weekend also saw the retirement of a man who had been there and seen that: while only 33, Brendan Dolan has won every senior title on offer - the only man to do this - and he reached Neville Maxwell's total of 19 titles when he teamed up with Neptune clubmate Neil Casey to win the senior double scull.

Dolan also represented Ireland with honour since first chosen in 1986, the highlight being a bronze medal in the lightweight quadruple scull in 1997. The Neptune man, who has struggled with injury and the stresses of fitting a very tough sport around his job as a Garda will now be able to rearrange his priorities.

"It's time I spent time with my family," he said. As some of the older stars fade, some newer ones shine even more brightly.

Neptune won only five titles in Cork, Skibbereen won 11. And the two Skibbereen men who impressed as already looking the part as international rowers were Paul O'Sullivan, who is 19, 6ft 4in and almost 14 stone, and John Wholley (21, 6ft 4in and 13 1/2 stone).

Wholley has been selected for the Nations Cup (Under-23 World Championships) in Copenhagen at the end of the month. And the men's lightweight coxless four, also victors in their class in Cork have been given the same honour, as has lightweight sculler Neil Casey.

The performances at Lucerne over the weekend have led the IARU to choose others for the World Championships in Zagreb next month, some pending a trial, although this is a fraught area and had still to be locked into place yesterday.

Three rowers - two Belarussians and a Cuban - have had life bans imposed on them for testing positive for anabolic steroids.

Giovany Solo Lopez of Cuba, who tested positive in an out-of-competition test at a training camp in Mexico City, was a member of the Cuban men's quadruple scull which had already qualified for the Olympic Games.

Natalia Lavrenenko and Natalia Stasiok, members of the Belarus women's quadruple scull, were tested at a training centre in Belarus.