MORE THAN 100 scullers are expected to race against the stopwatch at Islandbridge today, with Niall O'Toole well placed on his return to the single scull to reserve a top rung on the Guinness Dublin sculling ladder.
Having sat out last year's time-trial to concentrate on Olympic crew selection, O'Toole chases his fifth win in an event dominated by Commercial scullers; Emmet O'Brien defends his wooden goblet over the reversed Islandbridge course, Neal Byrne and the national champion Lar Collins race to improve on their respective second and third places.
The Neptune sculler and former ladder champion, Brendan Dolan, holds the best chance to break Commercial's stranglehold if he races today. Positions can be improved over the winter but the demands of the national squad have generally left the upper reaches of the ladder unchallenged after the initial time-trial.
Sheila Clavin and Vincent Hussey travel from Offaly, Clavin being the closest challenger to Commercial's Mary Hussey in the women's event last season. Castleconnell's Vincent Carroll also races, with a benefit night being held at the Commercial club for his arson-hit club.
Although conceived as part of the closed season programme, O'Toole sees the ladder more as a distraction. "Winter training is so intense that the last thing anyone wants to do is to be racing half way through. The time-trial is usually the hardest race of the year - you don't have any preparation for it and halfway down the course your lungs are fit to burst - but for people training flat out you don't want to break the focus by taking part in the challenges," said O'Toole.
With Scotland's Peter Haining moving up to heavyweight, the lightweight scull offers the best prospect of a second World championship title and after an uncomfortable season making crew selection for the Olympic double scull, O'Toole has returned to single sculling for renewed motivation.
"It is hard to tailor a training programme that is flexible enough to suit a whole group and last year I just found it difficult to adjust to being in a crew boat where you can't row according to how you feel.
"Obviously the Sydney Olympics is the big carrot and it means I would have to go back to the double to make selection, but for the time being, I'll be training at my own intensity and doing my own thing in the single; at this stage I don't want my training to be focused on anything other than rowing for enjoyment."
