Fresh personnel and agenda to the fore ahead of Rowing Ireland board meeting

The board of Rowing Ireland meets this weekend, with an interesting agenda and new personnel. Morten Espersen, the high-performance director, will speak on plans for a momentous year for the sport here. Sport Ireland this week granted the high-performance system €400,000, which placed it in the top 10 Olympic sports, but Espersen has made the case that only a comprehensive set of overseas camps will prepare the Ireland team properly for Rio.

The case could hardly have been made more forcefully than in recent weeks. The Ireland team has returned from Seville, where it completed big mileages in predictable conditions, something that would not have been possible in Ireland in January and February.

The board has been augmented by the addition of Mike Heskin and Neville Maxwell. Heskin was co-opted under new provisions to bring expertise on board. He is a big hitter who was recently named as director of sport and physical activity at NUI Galway, having served for three years as chief executive of Hockey Ireland. He has a strong background in rowing, and managed the Ireland team in Beijing.

Maxwell is a two-time Olympic rower, who was part of the Ireland lightweight fours that finished fourth at Lake Lanier in 1996 and 11th in Sydney.

Back on the water, the river Lagan has come to the rescue of rowers starved of action. The Lagan Scullers’ Head of the River was held in strong easterly winds on Saturday. Philip Doyle, of Queen’s University, beat Portadown’s Sam McKeown into second in the battle of the single scullers. The Lagan Head of the River, on February 27th, is next on the domestic calendar.

The programme for the Irish Championships in July has been published, and there will be a new non-championship event, the junior 15 eights for girls and boys. Rowing Ireland has held forums with the aim of bringing clubs around to the idea of holding the senior championships in September and October in 2017-2021.