Seeds sownto nurture Ireland's young talent

ROWING COLUMN:IN RECENT years, Ireland's performances at underage level have been worryingly weak. Last year we did not field a team at the World Junior Championships and the World Under-23 Championships were a slaying grounds for seemingly rising talent.

Over the past few months a small group have been working hard at sowing the seeds of redemption. Ciara Ní Chéilleachair, Neasa Folan, Colm Joyce and Gary Neff have held camps for under-23 athletes, the most recent held last weekend at the National Rowing Centre in Cork.

"It went very well," said Ní Chéilleachair. Along with the athletes who hope to represent Ireland this year at under-23 level Ní Chéilleachair and her team have formed a Development Group which could form the basis of international teams in the coming seasons.

A talented junior who turns 18 or an enthusiastic university rower can have a huge leap to make to become proficient as an adult athlete. Ní Chéilleachair says that the Development Group of about 20 athletes has been left pretty open to ambitious competitors but the standard have improved appreciably in the camps so far.

At the top end, national trials in three weeks' time will decide who will wear the green vest at the World Under-23 Championships in Brandenberg in Germany in July. Three athletes, all lightweights, have been making strong claims: Orla Hayes, Siobhán McCrohan and Liam Molloy.

Orla Hayes's brother, Ciarán Hayes, is set for more immediate competition. He is part of the London Rowing Club entry for tomorrow's London Head of the River. This event has, as usual, a strong Irish contingent, with crews from Belfast Rowing Club, Neptune, Shandon, Queen's University, UCD and Trinity all entered.

Trinity will be in action again next weekend. The Gannon Cup, the annual colours race between Trinity and UCD, will take place tomorrow week on what has become its traditional route from O'Connell Bridge to Heuston Station. It has landed a new sponsor, however, in Dublin Docklands Development Authority, and next year the race will take a big leap forward - it will move downriver to a course finishing near the East Link bridge.

The location is close to the ancestral home of rowing in Dublin, and there are hopes of generating a "buzz" around the event by holding the race on Friday evening, when workers in the area will be able to watch the race when they finish at their desks.

The deferred Dublin Head of the River will follow its traditional route when it is held tomorrow fortnight, March 29th. The race was originally scheduled for February 9th but was called off due to predicted high water levels. The race will be restricted to eights due to the short tidal window available.

The British national trials have featured some good performances by Irish competitors. Alan Campbell was an emphatic winner in the men's single scull, while fellow Coleraine man Richard Chambers was second behind Mark Hunter in the equivalent lightweight discipline. James Lindsay-Fynn was absent through illness.

The men's pair title was won for the fourth time in a row by Andy Hodge and Peter Reed in a race described by Reed as "the best race we have put together in the past four years". British coach Jurgen Grobler must decide whether to make this crew his priority ahead of the men's four. An Ireland pair of Jonno Devlin and Seán Casey gave Hodge and Reed a good race in the early-season Fisa Team Cup last month.

Terry McEvoy and Ian James feature on Fisa juries for big international events in the coming season. McEvoy is part of the team for the World Cup in Lucerne in late May, while James has been chosen for the World Coastal and World Masters Championships. Kieran Kerr was chosen last year as a jury member for the Olympic Games.