Athlone the calm before the storm of nationals

ROWING:SITED JUST before the storm of rowing action that erupts in the next month, Athlone Regatta at Coosan Point tomorrow has one star attraction – a preview of what will be one of the hottest events of the National Championships in three weeks' time.

The big guns in the men’s senior eight – Queen’s, NUIG and Muckross – have generally avoided each other through the season, but the top eights at junior 18 level are all entered tomorrow and their final is set to be the last race of the day.

The first semi-final will feature Bann, Presentation of Cork and Commercial, while the second has Portora, St Joseph’s of Galway, Commercial and Athlone.

Under the new format in the Grand Leagues these crews have taken on senior and intermediate boats and handed out a few shocks. Athlone was originally pencilled in as a Grand League event, but access to only five lanes meant it could not be done in a single day and the club passed on the chance, according to John O’Meara of the organising committee.

There will be no men’s senior eights race tomorrow, but Galway Regatta on Sunday features an NUIG entry. NUIG would dearly love to see their senior eight retain their crown at the National Championships in three weeks’ time, and it looks like they will have the services of Beijing Olympian Cormac Folan for that challenge.

Folan is part of the Ireland team for the Lucerne World Cup in two weeks’ time, but he may return to Ireland for the Championships the following week. Seán Jacob and single sculler Sanita Puspure, who brings the number of Ireland crews at Lucerne to seven, may also return to Ireland.

It is understood that Siobhán McCrohan and Cathal Moynihan will stay on in Switzerland for an Ireland camp. The Ireland under-23 team will travel on from Switzerland to the World Championships in Belarus which end on the weekend of July 24th.

The first of the upcoming big events is Henley Royal Regatta. The official start is on Wednesday, but a number of Irish crews have been asked to take part in tonight’s qualifiers.

The promising women’s quadruple scull of Rachel Beringer, Amy Duncan, Laura D’Urso and Dympna Kelly will have its work cut out for it in the qualifier for the Princess Grace, where only two crews will come through out of eight. Other crews who have been asked to qualify include the Lady Elizabeth pair of Brendan Smyth and Martin Murphy in the Silver Goblets; Trinity in the Temple Cup for college eights and Peter Chambers in the Diamond Sculls.