New lightweight project to develop crews for World Championship level

A new lightweight project, led by coaches Pat McInerney and Dave Mannion, will be put in place to develop new men's crews which can compete at World Championship level in the coming years. The plan, long mooted by Ireland high performance director Morten Espersen, was published on the Rowing Ireland website on Thursday.

However, the plan makes no mention of coaches for the present lightweight men’s four.

One of the shocking aspects of last season was that the lightweight four spent long periods with no coach. Ireland lead coach Don McLachlan has been overseeing these crews, but this is not practical in the long term.

Rowing Ireland chief executive Hamish Adams said that financial considerations limited coaching in recent seasons, but he would be speaking to Espersen about the situation in the season ahead when Esperesen returned from holidays.

The two club development forums this week drew impressive numbers. They were led by Simon Dickie of British Rowing.

Ireland's top woman sculler, Sanita Puspure, competes in the Armada Cup in Bern in Switzerland this Saturday.

She will be the third woman off the start. The Castleconnell head of the river, also on Saturday, begins a busy few weeks of domestic action.

A week later the Neptune Head of the River has drawn a good entry, and on the same day, November 7th, three Ireland heavyweight quadruples, competing as Tara, go off 7th, 9th and 11th in the London Fours Head.