THE close of the 1996 season has seen grass-roots clubs looking for some return for the commitment they have shown over the past four years, which they have spent bolstering international ambitions.

For much of Dermot Henihan's presidency, rowing was gearing up for the Olympic Regatta in Atlanta with the focus on the new lightweight events. After exhaustive selection trials, Sam Lynch and Derek Holland who remained from the 1995 championship coxless four were joined by world medal-rated pair Tony O'Connor and Neville Maxwell.

With only two months on the water, the four arrived on Lake Lanier straight from the last-chance qualifiers in Lucerne and won its repechage with authority. The four then raced through two crews, including the current World Champions from Italy, to reach an Olympic final that tew had expected them to reach.

The Irish four couldn't repeat the control and finishing pace they had shown earlier in the regatta and had to settle for fourth place from a give-and-take lightweight final that, at one point, they briefly lead.

Halfway down the course, three leading boats had to be split by the clock, with Ireland 0.0038 of a second in front of the Canadians and eventual gold medallists, Denmark. In the end, the difference between miss and medal was half-a-boat length, a margin worth little more than a second.

O'Connor and Maxwell, who were named as recipients of a Texaco Award this week, put the disappointment behind them two weeks later when they passed last-minute medical tests to take silver at the World Rowing Championships in Scotland.

The coxless pair was almost scratched from the race because of sickness but held out until the last 250 metres of the final, before they where finally overhauled by the Danes. The Irish quad scull had to settle for fourth in their final, a race that may be the last in a crew boat at this level for Niall O'Toole.

For the former world champion it was a disappointing end to a dispiriting season. A drawn-out and acrimonious selection process for the Olympic double scull had left O'Toole and Brendan Dolan with a just matter of weeks on the water before racing at Lake Lanier, where they went out in their repechage in spite of setting a near-record pace.

The selection process for the double scull came in for particular criticism afterwards, with the reluctance to involve club coaches in the schedule being one of the issues that have brought the clubs out of the shadow of the international group.

Tom Fenessey's election as IARU president last month is expected to usher in changes that will redress the lack of focus on provincial rowing.

The biggest challenge will be to develop the structure Fenessey has inherited so that it allows domestic rowing to feed off the international success that, this year, yielded 17 medals from junior and senior competition - Gearoid Towey won gold and Debbie Stack and Vanessa Lawrenson silver at the de facto under-23 world championships.

The Dublin-based Neptune club looks likely to be the main beneficiary, with new international oarsmen and scullers already swelling its ranks after a championship-winning season. Neptune's senior eight took the Thames Challenge Trophy in relative comfort, and their self-assurance reappeared at the end of the National Championships in Inniscarra when they won the title having been earlier raced through by two St Michael's and Shannon composite fours.

Several of the Neptune eight will be training with the national squad this weekend and should figure in plans to double the number of Olympic crews at the Syndey Games.