ROWINGTHE SEASON ahead promises to be the busiest in decades, and already there is activity both on and off the water.
The St Michael’s head of river tomorrow has an entry of over 200 crews, with senior eights entered from the host club and University of Limerick.
The Limerick college now have the services of coach James Mangan, whose interesting history includes founding the Saugatuck rowing club in Connecticut. Mangan worked with the lightweights in the US system and he coached the Ireland adaptive crews this year.
UCD have parted with their director of rowing, John Holland. The Corkman took up the post in 2004, the year he had his greatest success as a coach, guiding the Greece lightweight scull to a bronze medal at the Athens Olympics. UCD did poorly at the National Championships this year, but Holland said he was “very disappointed” with UCD’s decision.
He has begun to coach again with Neptune.
The Irish Indoor Championships, which Holland has overseen since 2001, will not be held this year. Concept Two, whose provision of rowing machines has been central to the success of the venture, have been making cutbacks and were not prepared to provide this support for the current year.
Last weekend’s Offaly scullers head was made up mainly of local entrants, but Ciarán Ward of Commercial in Dublin, who won the junior single scull, was the overall winner.
The sculling ladders around the country are in full swing, with the Dublin ladder set for tomorrow. Eamonn Joyce and Karen Corcoran won the recent Cork ladder. Representatives from Cork, Belfast and Dublin met in a sculling challenge in Dublin last month, with Seán and Siobhán Jacob fastest home.
The core of personnel who run domestic rowing was given a shake-up at the meeting of the executive of the Irish Amateur Rowing Union. Brendan O’Dea replaces Mick O’Callaghan as chair of the National Rowing Centre sub-committee; Michael R Hughes takes over as chair of the championship sub-committee, and Lisa O’Callaghan will chair the umpires sub-committee.
The four-year rule, which limits the time which officers can serve on one sub-committee, has played a big part in the change.
