ROWING:Rowing in Ireland is changing radically. At the top level the new board of the Irish Amateur Rowing Union, having appointed a new international team manager and new lightweight coach, are building structures to make the international level more accountable. The focus is turning to the rest of the sport - and the picture is not a pretty one.

In recent years, Ireland's record at under-23 level in international regattas has been dire. At junior (under-18) level we have no athletes of World Championship standard. At club level there has been an upswing in the number of juniors competing, but the senior level has thinned out alarmingly. The domestic season is built around junior and novice grades.

Government policy has not helped: funding saturates the peak of the pyramid with the strata beneath all but cut off from the bounty. An obsession with upping our chances of Olympic medals has translated into giving the elite the best of everything in the short term rather than taking the long-term view that sports which are healthy at every level will yield a constant supply of talent at the very top.

But clubs are the base of the sport, and it is from club level that real improvement will spring. The most progressive of these - and there are many - are already working to broaden the base of the sport by working to build up teams of enthusiastic coaches; forging links with schools; providing enticing outings for their young charges.

Top-class sport is about the twin attractions of individual ambition and spectacle. In Irish rowing these two drivers have been held apart to the detriment of the sport. So a young athlete who has bags of enthusiasm sees his day in the sun coming in an Irish vest and devotes his time to proving himself in the demanding national trials process. Since only a few are cut out to be internationals this process can be doubly damaging: the athlete may become disillusioned and club events can end up as the consolation prize.

The solution is multifaceted. The international trials process may be open at the start but must quickly move to deal only with athletes of proven ability; the regatta season needs to be structured and meaningful; clubs need to be proactive in attracting spectators and sponsors. Big events should have commentary and good spectator facilities. If those who are not there for the love of the sport warm to it, the club is in much better shape to land sponsorship.

Tomorrow's St Michael's Head of the River has been cancelled because of the high level of the River Shannon.