ROWING: While this is a quiet time for many major sports, rowing and other Olympic disciplines face into their quadrennial period of self-examination and change.

New head coach Harald Jahrling has laid down a programme for the year which starts in little more than a week with a five-kilometre ergometer trial and includes two selection trials in April and May.

Those who reach the top at senior level will be aimed at the three World Cup regattas and the World Championships in Japan. They can look forward to a camp in St Moritz in Switzerland in the summer.

The World Under-23 Championships in Amsterdam are also a priority - and Jahrling is planning to send an under-17 team to the Coupe de la Jeunesse in Eton and an under-19 group to the World Junior Championships in Brandenburg in Germany.

Change will be the keynote of tomorrow's extraordinary general meeting of the Irish Amateur Rowing Union at Parkwest in Dublin. The vexed issue of who qualifies for the novice grade will be thrashed out, and it seems likely delegates will decide an athlete will only be allowed to campaign in the grade for two years.

The present situation allows a competitor to remain a novice until the end of the season of his or her second win, and has led to seasoned campaigners still being involved in a grade which was clearly not devised for them. Juniors (under-18 competitors) may also be prohibited from taking part in novice events.

Any reform will have to be accompanied by a well-thought-out and efficient registration system. One of the big problems with club rowing in recent years has been the fading of some of the smaller regattas. The thinking is many rowers fight shy of competing in these because a win might move them up a grade.

A possible solution is the sorting of regattas along the lines of full status, semi-status and non-status - smaller events could then attract competitors who would have no fear of being bumped up a grade, or at least could win at two regattas before they would have a recorded win.

Other motions concern the limiting of composite crews to two clubs, and the possibility that the ban on junior composite crews at the National Championships would be lifted.

Delegates may also vote to adopt FISA rules on race starts for club events.

The presentation of the annual awards should add spice to the occasion - as might the debate on funding of the union.