ROWING NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS:THE GALWAY Rowing Club men's senior pair of Marc Stephens and John Forde won the standout race of the first day of the National Rowing Championships at Farran Wood in Cork yesterday.

The verdict, after a stunningly-close finish, was 0.01 seconds to the Galway men over Paul O'Brien and Paul Murray from Garda and University of Limerick respectively.

Stephens and Forde had a very good day, as they were also part of a Galway and Shannon senior coxed four which had a more comfortable win over Trinity. The margin here was 3.5 seconds.

UCD had to pull out the stops to take the men's novice eights pot.

Queen's University started well and led at half-way, but the men in blue and saffron rowed sweetly in the final thousand metres to win by almost four seconds.

Women's rowing in the college also has its strengths, and Helen Walshe and Anne Claffey won the senior double scull for UCD. Indeed it was a day for college crews, as the University of Limerick won the women's novice coxed fours.

By far the most impressive winner of the day was Garda's Caroline Ryan in the women's senior single scull. Few finals at a national championships can have been won by the margin pulled out by the Kildare woman - she had 26.4 seconds to spare at the end.

Ryan came into the championships with wins at Women's Henley and Henley Royal Regatta under her belt, yet had little mentoring in the international system this season.

With the present Olympic cycle almost at a close, there is a clear imperative for the powers that be to put in place a system next time out which offers athletes such as Ryan a clear opportunity to test herself over time at international level.

On the positive side, there are young athletes coming through.

Skibbereen's Mark O'Donovan, who has been in the Under-23 development squad and will represent Ireland at the Home Internationals this season, made a mark with a good win in the lightweight single scull.

Liam Molloy, who would have been the favourite to take this title, finished second, but the NUIG man is focused on the World Under-23 Championships next week.

Skibbereen - who took their 100th national title at the Junior Championships last weekend - were also part of the composite who won the senior quadruple scull title.