Liffey springs to life

Rowing News round-upTomorrow's Neptune Regatta at Islandbridge in Dublin is the first club regatta of the season, and presages two days of action on this stretch of the Liffey, as rivals and neighbours Commercial stage their sister event on Sunday.

Neptune have 159 races scheduled, up from 154 last year, with the programme set to run from 8.30am to after 7pm. The men's senior eights is an all-Dublin event, with Trinity taking on Commercial in the first semi-final and Neptune pitted against UCD in the second.

The men's senior single scull may be one of the more interesting classes of the day, with the host club's peerless teenager, Paul O'Brien, entered in the men's senior single scull, where he is due to take on Jonny Devitt of UCD, while Neptune's Neil Casey takes on Neptune old boy Derek Holland, now rowing for Portora.

Devitt could have a very good weekend. He has been impressive in the international trials so far and he looks the pick of the senior scullers in action on Sunday. Commercial have a smaller entry, with only two entries in the men's senior eight, theirs and UCD, but they also offer a programme which stretches throughout the day.

Regattas run on two lanes on rivers have a long history and their own attractions, but a big entry means a very long programme, and ambitious competitors increasingly favour multi-lane courses.

The weekend's regattas have been designated semi-status in the new regime agreed by the Irish Amateur Rowing Union (IARU), with some regattas being counted as non-status and some full status.

The classification is linked with a push by the union to ensure that athletes are registered properly and rowing at the right grade. IARU chief executive Martin Corcoran says that he will be checking the athletes' bona fides at the regattas and will even register athletes on the day if they qualify. The club will bear the brunt of responsibility if there are anomalies.

"There is a sanction on the club and the individual if they give a false view on their status," says Corcoran.

"We are looking at putting in a system where we are going to automate regatta entries and also generate regatta returns online as well, so a person's status will be updated automatically," Corcoran adds, although for the present there will be both paper and online systems, and regatta secretaries will still be a key part of the process.

Clubs will not be allowed to omit names from their entries.