Young team out to shine in Lucerne

ROWING:TEN YEARS ago in beautiful Lucerne, Ireland grabbed some glory. Three gold medals at the World Championships seemed all the sweeter because they were won at a legendary venue.

The Rotsee – the “Lake of the Gods” – remains a mecca, and this weekend an Ireland team will again sweep down the course in the hope of making their names.

The team is a young one, and the ambitions at the World Cup regatta will hardly include gold medals, but we are a year from the Olympics and London is calling.

Of the five crews picked, the new double of Sanita Puspure and Lisa Dilleen look most likely to be in the mix come Sunday’s finals – and when it comes to booking an Olympic place for the boat at the World Championships in Slovenia next month. The lightweight double of Sarah Dolan and Claire Lambe is an under-23 crew and the lightweight double of Mark O’Donovan and Michael Maher is relatively untried.

Ireland’s remaining entries of Siobhán McCrohan and the men’s lightweight quadruple scull are in non-Olympic events, which are not as strong at this otherwise dazzling event.

Of course, Ireland’s medallists 10 years ago also competed in non-Olympic events – but Sam Lynch, Sinead Jennings, Tony O’Connor and Gearóid Towey lifted the spirits of the public and showed what could be done. Let’s hope some of the stardust is sprinkled on those who follow them today.

Back home, just four men’s senior eights are set to compete at this year’s National Championships, which run from Thursday to Saturday next week at the National Rowing Centre in Cork. The entry in full reflects the profile of the sport here just now – a thin senior entry, and a surge of underage crews. In the junior 15 single scull alone (a non-championship event) there are 50 entries, and in the junior coxed quadruple there are 23, which represents over 100 competitors.

Some of the young athletes are taking a cut at their elders: teenagers Paul O’Donovan and Holly Nixon are entered in the senior single sculls events and will not be rank outsiders. Two interesting entries in the women’s single are Eimear Moran, recently of the international programme, and Laura D’Urso, who has been on scholarship in the US.

The men’s junior 18 eight is notable for the lack of Skibbereen – three northern clubs (Portora, Methody and Bann) take on Galway crews Coláiste Íognáid and St Joseph’s.

The four-crew entry in the men’s senior eights will also not lessen the edge of anticipation. The entries are NUIG/Grainne Mhaol, UCD, Queen’s and Trinity.

The one quibble from clubs is that training in the run-up to the event is costly, at €6 per athlete per day. Rowing Ireland chief executive Martin Corcoran pointed out yesterday that Wednesday training will be free.

Inniscarra Lake will be the place to be next week.