Plenty on the agenda to debate

ROWING IARU AGM:THESE ARE interesting times in rowing. Orla Hayes (22) confirmed the potential of our athletes when she took bronze at the World University Championships at the weekend, while the administration of the sport at international level will soon be shaken up with the appointment of a new performance director.

Club members get a chance to air their views at the annual general meeting of the IARU in Dublin tomorrow - and it could be an illuminating affair.

While there is plenty of business to be done on the domestic front, there will also be a focus on what happened in last month's Olympiad and what lessons should be learned.

One of the key questions concerns the verdict on outgoing head coach Harald Jahrling. The big German had control of the lightweight programme effectively removed from him last year after the four failed to qualify directly for the Olympic Games. But Jahrling brought Ireland back into the frame in heavyweight rowing, and his heavyweight four matched the lightweight four in Beijing.

One man who is outspoken on the affair is Mick O'Callaghan, who served as Ireland team manager for much of the past 20 years. He says Jahrling was the best coach we ever had.

"With all the criticism of him we should be doing our level best to keep him with our heavyweights - or somebody as good as him. My fear now is that because of the way he's been treated no top-class coach will come and work with us."

O'Callaghan, who is 60, departs as a board member tomorrow, with Kieran Kerr joining the board as Munster representative. Frank Durkin steps down as president, to be replaced by Tony Dooley snr.

John McGeehan, another long-serving official, will be opposed in the only election by Michael R Hughes of Galway Rowing Club.

O'Callaghan's legacy is already assured. The recent grant under the Sports Capital Programme of €800,000 to the National Rowing Centre (NRC) ensures this remarkable facility will, he says in his report to the agm, "be completed to top international standard".

There will also be a high-performance laboratory at the NRC, which will be able to conduct physiological tests on athletes.

While reports from the international rowing committee and on the accounts of the union were not available yesterday, many of the others were put online, which is a welcome development.

The report of chief executive Martin Corcoran details how the Sports Council grant to the union was over €1 million this year.

There are 2,160 rowers registered with the IARU, just under half being juniors.

Those active in the sport will get a second chance to make major alterations within a few months. Next year is a rule-change year, and the rules-review committee have released a long list of proposals. These include splitting the intermediate grade - although there would be only one grade at the National Championships.

There are other possible changes: the coxed four would be removed from the championships; a junior could row with only one club in a season; adaptive rowing would be incorporated into the rules of the union.

Clubs will meet to discuss these options in early December before the vote in January.

Back on the water, Hayes was not the only Irish success story at the weekend: Commercial and Belfast Rowing Club had wins at the World Masters in Lithuania.