Rowing NewsIreland rowing coach Harald Jahrling says we need an Institute of Sport - fast. The man who oversaw the country's best result internationally last year, the silver medal won by the lightweight four at the World Championships, says Ireland lags decades behind other countries in the testing which would be done by such a body.
"I hope something is going to be done in the run-up to the Olympic Games in Beijing," Jahrling says when asked about the promise of such an institute contained in the Sports Council's announcement of a new carding system earlier this week.
Jahrling worked alongside both the state and national institutes in a decade-and-a-half of coaching in Australia, and says he has been involved in planning meetings in relation to setting up one here. He says a lot of the testing and support structures top athletes need just don't exist in Ireland at the moment.
What about the National Coaching and Training Centre (NCTC) in Limerick? "There are some clear shortfalls in the system. We have spoken about it, and we can only give our input and say what we think should be done, and how to learn from other countries.
"At the moment we are just not at the same level as the higher developed sports nations in the world. If we want to get medals we have to catch up to them to a certain degree."
So we're at the level where top nations were 10 years ago?
"Ten?" he asks. "In our sport, in biomechanics for example, we don't do any testing with our athletes. The first biomechanics systems were around at the end of the 1960s. Yes, the end of the '60s. And it's now 2006.
"I want to know what my athletes are doing in the boat. I mean mechanically. At the moment I'm just using my eyes and a stopwatch. That's what people were doing in the 1950s and 1960s."
Jahrling is happy with the grants given to rowers. Sam Lynch and Gearoid Towey, who have not been voted grants, are training under him this year, although Lynch's heavy workload as a trainee doctor may be a factor in his programme. "It's very early yet," Jahrling adds.
He has drawn criticism from club sources for drawing too many athletes into his system, but Jahrling says athletes who want to excel are going to focus on this process. He stages his trials to fit the international calendar.
Some rumours say he intends to take a huge team to the World Championships in Eton in August. "Someone knows more than I do," he says. "There is too much talk. People talk too much and don't do enough."
