Competition sure to be hot at O'Brien's Bridge

ROWING NEWS ROUND-UP: THE WEATHER is set to be wet, but there will be hot competition on the water at tomorrow's St Michael's Head of the River at O'Brien's Bridge. Many of the athletes have big ambitions for the season ahead.

In an entry of well over 400 crews, the men’s senior eight is noticeably strong. NUIG are aiming to launch a challenge in the Ladies Plate at Henley this season and will have a big crew, even without Alan Martin, who has work commitments.

UCD, fresh from a training camp in Seville, will also be aching to get into the full swing of competition. Anthony English will stroke the crew from bow side.

St Michael’s, Neptune and Old Collegians will have big names on board, and Galway, Castleconnell and a Shandon/UCC composite complete a strong line-up.

In the men’s senior double scull, Sam and Hugh Lynch will also be starting a season which could peak at Henley.

At the next level down, the men’s intermediate scull has over 40 entries.

Ireland performance director Martin McElroy will be an interested spectator. McElroy was in positive form yesterday after the bounce of the outstanding coaching conference which was held in Dublin on Sunday.

Chief organiser Pat McInerney did a terrific job. Over 150 packed the venue – and the event was a shot in the arm for the sport here.

McElroy was the keynote speaker and he again banged the drum on the creation of a sustainable system which would see Irish coaches taking Irish athletes to podium finishes.

“The answer is in this room but it’s not me, it’s you,” opined the Galway man.

The number of applications for the coaching jobs advertised by Rowing Ireland had been “amazing”, he said, but the provision of funding remains to be resolved. He dropped a strong hint that if it came to a choice between providing coaches or foreign camps, the focus would be on coaches, while he identified the revitalising of the under-23 system as crucial.

McElroy is only four weeks away from his first official review of the talent on offer in Newry on February 21st and 22nd.

Simon Dickie, who has pioneered the expansion of club rowing in England, explained how the ARA had increased membership by 100 per cent in a decade. They went out to clubs and showed them how they could tap into funding and bigger membership by opening up to the local schools and community. And the programme could work here, said the Enniskillen man.

The Northern feel to the proceedings was marked. An impressive, computer-generated image of the proposed watersports centre in Portadown was all the more powerful because high-ranking local politicians were present.

Thor Nilsen was given a surprise presentation by Niall O’Toole and a group of athletes. The Norwegian was his usual, amusing and thought-provoking self, covering a wide range of coaching practices.

On talent identification, he cited the case of Francesco Esposito of Italy to encourage open-mindedness. Esposito achieved multiple World Championship golds and was awarded the Thomas Keller medal, the top rowing honour awarded by peers, despite being only 5ft 6in (170 cm) tall. “Let them develop. Don’t close the door on anyone,” Nilsen opined.

Joe Cunningham’s down-to-earth explanation of how adaptive rowing can be adopted by clubs was refreshing, and he was also the bearer of good news.

Shane Ryan of Castleconnell took bronze in the LTA (legs, trunk and arms) category at the European Indoor Championships in Rome at the weekend.

He clocked a remarkable time of three minutes 13.5 seconds for 1,000 metres.