ROWING:St Moritz. The name conjures up images of the super-wealthy enjoying the finer things in life, but for the next three weeks the Swiss location will be home to 12 of Ireland's hardest working athletes. The elite rowers fly out today knowing their daily routine will involve sweat and pain with the ultimate aim of producing the goods in Beijing in 19 months' time.
The elite rowers are well catered for now, and head coach Harald Jahrling will take them off for work on the water in a camp near Nice in France in March. Again the location seems affluent, but again the athletes will be based away from the holidaymakers, at a lake in the mountains.
On Tuesday, Anglo Irish Bank announced their sponsorship of the lightweight crews at Islandbridge. Jahrling looked out over the Liffey and spoke of how it was important for his charges to have periods of guaranteed good weather.
Jahrling has been shocked at how rough the weather has been in Ireland in recent months. As he spoke a tree branch floated down the river. Point made.
Jahrling and his assistant, Debbie Fox, may soon be joined by another full-time coach, who would primarily deal with the Ireland under-23 crews. The post was first advertised yesterday, with a contract for the 2007 season initially offered. Funding will be from the High Performance budget.
In a separate move, the union is also intent on recruiting a Coach Education Officer, who would "ideally" work on a full-time basis, according to IARU chief executive Martin Corcoran. Yesterday's grant of over €190,000 was won on the basis that such a person is crucial to build up the sport at lower levels. Corcoran says the union was very conscious that a "big chasm" could open up between the two ends of the sport.
The fact that so many of the best athletes are pulled towards Dublin colleges has also worried rowing people outside the capital. The University of Limerick has revamped its Paddy Dooley Rowing Scholarship, consolodating four €1,000 grants into one €4,000 sum. Club captain Ronan Ivers jokes that this might help "decentralise" some rowers back to Limerick.
For the most famous of all Limerick rowers, Sam Lynch, Beijing seems to be the aim. Lynch set the fastest time for a lightweight in the recent 5,000 ergometer (rowing machine) tests, although at this stage the competitors were not required to be at competition weight. The former world champion has been invited to the senior camp at Inniscarra next month.
Whether Lynch will find a way into the Ireland team for Beijing, and if so in which boat, is one of the big questions in rowing at the moment. He might find some solace in the news that Britain coach Jurgen Grobler has decided to break up his heavyweight four, who are unbeaten in 24 races.
Perhaps the easiest way to guarantee a place in the 2008 Olympics is through the competition run by the Chinese to find their own coxwains for their Olympic boats. The format? A reality TV show!
