Juniors go in Europeans

RowingThe Netherlands is the place to be to spot up-and-coming Irish talent this weekend. The Coupe de la Jeunesse, a European junior championship, begins tomorrow in Groningen, while a number of underage athletes have been training in Amsterdam for other upcoming challenges.

The Coupe comes to the national rowing centre in Cork in 2008, so the Irish management will be watching how the event is run. Ireland have four men's crews and a single woman competitor, Laura Gannon, who gets to experience international competition two weeks after proving herself - at the National Championships - the best junior single sculler in Ireland.

John Currivan won the equivalent title in the men's section, and he is part of a quadruple scull that includes Aaron Bolger of Carlow, a club lately making impressive strides at underage level.

Two fours, one coxed, and a single sculler, Mark O'Donovan of Skibbereen, make up the rest of the team.

Juniors at the next level up compete in the World Junior Championships in Amsterdam next weekend, and the Ireland coxed four that cut their teeth at the World Under-23 Championships in Hazewinkel, Belgium, last weekend have been training in the Dutch capital.

The British lightweight pair who won gold in Hazewinkel include Coleraine's Richard Chambers. Like a number of sports, rowing is an all-island sport, but the president of the Irish Amateur Rowing Union, Frank Durkin, says no fuss is made when athletes from Northern Ireland row for Britain.

"We're in a unique situation in the world," says Durkin of the fact that athletes covered by an international body of one jurisdiction have passports that entitle them to citizenship of another jurisdiction.

Richard Archibald, a member of Ireland's outstanding lightweight coxless four, and Alan Campbell, Britain's rising star in the men's single scull, are from Coleraine. It is not inconceivable the two could stand for different anthems at medal ceremonies at the World Championships in Eton in three weeks' time.