ROWING: Ireland's top woman canoeist, Eadaoin Ní Challarain, heads for Holland next week for 10 days training, but already has her mind set on the World Championships in Augsburg in Germany in July next year and qualification for the 2004 Olympics, writes Liam Gorman.
The Galway woman finished an excellent sixth in the woman's K1 in the final Slalom World Cup event in Brazil last month, securing a World Cup ranking for the year of 13th, putting her on course for qualification for Athens if she maintains this form.
Ní Challarain finished 18th in Sydney, but says she had at that point spent only four years in the sport, and coaching by Dutchman Han Bijnen recently has improved her performance. "The idea is to go for the podium in Athens," says the full-time athlete who has put her medical studies on hold after four years. Her world ranking is 17th, as she finished 22nd in the World Championships in France in August.
The other members of the slalom team also did well in Tibagi in Brazil. Aidan Rheinisch finished 10th, giving him a World Cup ranking of 18th, while Eoin Rheinisch (16th) and Neil Caffrey (17th) secured rankings in the 20s. The Rheinischs' leave for Australia in December to train at the 2000 Olympic course at Penrith.
Neil Fleming, the World Junior Marathon champion in 2001, unfortunately could not defend his title in Zamora in Spain last weekend due to illness.
GOLF: Golf drivers with an excessive spring-like effect on the club face will be banned at next year's British Open, the sport's governing body said yesterday.
The Royal and Ancient (R&A) has followed its counterpart in the United States - the U.S. Golf Association - by introducing a "coefficient of restitution" (COR), which effectively governs how fast the ball leaves the club face.
The new coefficient of 0.83, which is designed to limit the ever-increasing driving distances of leading professionals, will not apply to amateur events in Britain or Ireland.
"The decision to introduce the COR limit on driving clubs... is an important step towards achieving a return to uniformity in the equipment rules at the highest level," said Peter Dawson, secretary of the R&A.
"However, such a limit is not thought to be appropriate at this time for amateur events." Drivers with a high spring-like effect - nicknamed "hot drivers" - were banned at only three of the four majors before the decision.
OLYMPIC GAMES: A decision on whether to introduce golf and seven-aside rugby at the 2008 Beijing Games will not be taken until next year, International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge revealed yesterday.
It had been thought the issue would be discussed at the IOC congress slated for Mexico in November.
Now Tiger Woods and company will have to wait until the following IOC congress in Prague in July 2003 to hear whether they will have the chance to go for gold in China.
