The participation of the Irish men's lightweight double at this weekend's Duisburg regatta was in severe doubt last night after poor performances at Hazewinkel in Belgium, where they are training.
The Duisburg event is a key part of the build-up to the Munich World Cup regatta on June 2nd to 4th and, ideally, the lightweight double of Niall O'Toole and Derek Holland could have used it to turn their form around after disappointing performances at Ghent last weekend. However, if they do not compete the picture for this boat in the run-up to the crucial Olympic qualifier in Lucerne in July becomes very unclear.
Duisburg does, however, give the Neptune heavyweight double of Albert Maher and Sean Jacob a chance to make their case for a place at Munich and perhaps eventually at the Olympic qualifier.
A lightweight quadruple of Brendan Dolan, John Armstrong, Emmet O'Brien and Neil Casey is also set to compete, with Armstrong and Dolan also possibles in the lightweight double. Lightweight single sculler Sam Lynch is also entered.
Munich may also see a strong Irish women's representation. The Ghent weekend had a black shadow cast over it by a bereavement in Ireland which led to the withdrawal of Commercial on Sunday. However, Saturday had seen the Commercial quad win the open event, and the lightweight double were second in their event. Vanessa Lawrenson also finished second in the lightweight single scull.
It now looks as if there will be an Irish women's quad, double and single scull at Munich. Interestingly, lightweight single sculler Sinead Jennings from Donegal (rowing for the Scottish Amateur Rowing Association) is an entrant at Duisburg, where she can stake her claim.
The under-23 lightweight four may be basking in the glow of having broken the Ghent course record on Sunday. Indeed the senior lightweight four also broke the course record at Nottingham, and twice rowed under six minutes. Back in Ireland, the focus will be on the Limerick regatta tomorrow.
The death of Dan Murray this week is a great loss to rowing in Ireland and beyond. A stalwart of Cappoquin rowing club, where he served as both captain and president, Dan Murray also played his part at Henley, and was coach to a number of championship-winning crews.
Ar dheis De go raibh a anam.
E-mail: lgorman@irish-times.ie
