ROWING: Trinity College take on Queen's University tomorrow in the Lomac Tiles University Boat Race in Belfast (4pm) with hopes of a timely "bounce" for their premier men's eight as they prepare for the Temple Cup at Henley Royal Regatta in three weeks' time.
Tomorrow's event, which includes women's and men's novice races and a women's senior race, benefits from good timing, as it has only the non-status Castleconnell sprint regatta as competition this weekend.
The colleges' race has established a niche for itself in the last two years. Trinity's senior men won in 2004 and Queen's took the honours last year.
The visitors won the intermediate eight at the Irish University Championships and head for Belfast fresh from a win at Metropolitan Regatta last weekend. They have a settled line-up and are "not a bad crew, and getting better", according to coach Tim Levy.
David Storrs, the head coach at Queen's, says he has stepped back from direct coaching this year as he works at building up the club, but is confident his senior men will not be quailing before their rivals. "We had a very tight race at Ghent, where they beat us by one third of a length," he notes.
For Trinity's Jonny Maitland and Rory Horner the day will be a hectic one - they have exams in the morning, and the two men will then make the dash north.
Queen's will be entering a crew in the university coxed four for Henley, for which entries close on Tuesday.
Coleraine man Alan Campbell first came to prominence with a win in the Diamond Sculls at the English event. His victory in the single sculls at the recent Munich World Cup vaulted him to centre stage, but he will face the current world champion, Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand, at the Poznan World Cup, which starts on Thursday.
Drysdale was one of the winners when New Zealand had an outstanding World Championships last year, and now the country has more to celebrate as they will stage the event in 2010. The decision has to be ratified by world governing body Fisa later in the year, but the other contenders, The Netherlands, have already stepped out of the fray, agreeing such big events must be staged outside Europe regularly.
A recent decision by the 28 European national rowing federations means the continent will soon have its own multi-national event.
The vote was 24-4 to re-establish the European Rowing Championships, which will be overseen by Fisa, and will begin next year.
The time chosen is late September.
