ROWINGTHE QUALIFIERS for Henley Royal Regatta today involve a number of Irish crews, but the Irish entry for the regatta proper, which begins on Wednesday, is looking thinner by the day.
UCD's men's eight have been hit by illness and injury and have pulled out of the Temple Cup, while the club's single sculler, Helen Walshe, has also withdrawn from the Princess Royal.
That event will retain strong Irish hopes, however.
Caroline Ryan won the Elite single sculls title at Women's Henley regatta at the weekend and may have a good chance of adding the HRR title as well. The 28-year-old Garda beat Walshe in the semi-final.
Seán Jacob also planned to withdraw from the Diamond Sculls, but was convinced to stay in the draw yesterday. The Old Collegians man came out on the wrong end of a High Court case in which he fought to compete in the Olympic Qualifiers, but the court made no order on costs, meaning he will not be made pay the costs of the Irish Amateur Rowing Union.
Seán's younger sister, Fran Jacob, hopes to come through today's qualifier and join Ryan in the draw for the Princess Royal at Henley, while UCD's women's eight compete in the qualifiers for the Remenham Cup.
Commercial's crew for the Wyfold gave themselves a boost for Henley when they won the under-23 coxless four at Marlow Regatta at the weekend.
Back in Ireland, the National Rowing Centre staged trials for the Home International and Coupe de la Jeunesse at the weekend.
The partly-laid new course drew some criticism from competitors, but the completed version - which will be up to World Cup standard - will be available for the National Junior Championships next weekend.
The decision to split this event from the senior championships will make for a more low-key event, but there is a big programme on both days.
The junior 18 women's eights has seven entries, which cover the four provinces, while the four entries in the junior 18 men's eight has a similar spread.
Top single scullers like Peter Chambers and Peter Hanily and Laura D'Urso and Lisa Dilleen have been named in the Ireland team for the Coupe de la Jeunesse at the same venue in four weeks' time, but will get to take each other on for national titles next weekend.
On the international front, the next time the Ireland men's four and lightweight four go into competitive action will be on Saturday, August 9th and Sunday, August 10th, respectively, at the Olympic Games in Beijing.
But who will fill those boats? Six men are contending for places in both crews, and coaches Harald Jahrling and John Holland do not have easy jobs in making the fateful decisions.
It was notable in the final World Cup regatta in Poznan at the weekend that neither class showed signs of being nailed down by any crew, or even group of crews.
Britain, in particular, struggled in the lightweight four.
TEAMS for Home International (Cardiff, August 2nd), Senior Team, Men - Four, coxed: E Mac Dómhnaill, P Heverin, C Doorley, G Murphy (cox to be chosen). Pair: J Forde (Neptune), K O'Connor. Lightweight Pair: R Curley, C Horgan. Sculling, Double: A O'Riordan, R Michael. Lightweight Double: A McKenna, J Gleeson. Single: R O'Connor. Lightweight Single: M O'Donovan. Junior - Sweeep Group: D Joyce, D Hehir, P Griffin, B Egan, L Acheson, P Gillanders, P Higgins, P Jacques, F Barry, C Ó Fhathartha, R McCafferty (cox). Sculling: A Neale, S McIlveen, G O'Donovan, P O'Donovan, M McNaul, B Parker, S O'Driscoll.
Women - Four, coxed: A de Baróid, H Bergin, C O'Connor, L McInerney (cox to be chosen). Pair: R Beringer, A Graham. Lightweight Pair: V Stephens, S Cadogan. Sculling, Double: F Jacob, S Clavin. Lightweight Double: D Kelly C Hurst. Single: V Hourihane. Lightweight Single: D Kelly, C Hurst.
Junior - Sweep Group: K O'Brien, R Woods, Z Mannion, C Howley, C Walsh, G Collins, J Foley, G O'Brien, L Gallagher, L Smith. Sculling: C D'Urso, H Larkin, R Kelly, S Dolan, K Craig, O McGrath, J O'Keeffe.
Coupe de la Jeunesse (junior) (July 18th-20th NRC), Men — Sweep group: F Manning, M O'Brien, B McCarthy, M Connolly, J Mitchell, D Power, T Little, E Mullarkey, S Keegan (cox). Sculling: P Chambers, P Hanily, J Ryan, C Browne, P Grogan, K O'Shea. Women - Sweep: S Egan, A Keogh, K Barrett, R Egan. Sculling: L D'Urso, L Dilleen, O McEvoy, A Harris, S Bennett, H Nixon.
