Dilleen and D'Urso selected

ROWING NEWS ROUND-UP:THERE ARE big developments on two fronts this week. The crew which is likely to give Ireland its one shot at an international medal this season has been chosen, and a plan to entirely revamp the calendar for the sport in this country has been given the imprimatur of the executive of Rowing Ireland.

In addition, over 300 crews are entered for Monkstown and Cork Harbour regatta tomorrow at the National Rowing Centre.

The Ireland selectors have chosen the double scull of Lisa Dilleen and Laura D’Urso to represent the country at the World Junior Championships in France in August. The decision was far from a simple one, as Dilleen has been outstanding in the single scull this season and might have been chosen in this boat.

Both the single and the double won on successive days at the prestigious Munich Junior Regatta last month, and Ireland performance director Martin McElroy said selection was based on the fact the double was judged to have done better. A weighting was given to the respective times by assessing the performances of all the winners on each day against the projected world’s best time. McElroy gave credit to Gearóid Mitchell, the Tribesmen coach who has guided Dilleen and the double to such remarkable heights. Last year Dilleen and D’Urso took gold twice at the Coupe de la Jeunesse, a European junior championships.

The Ireland junior teams for the Coupe and for the Home International regatta this season are being finalised, and tomorrow’s Monkstown regatta gets the boost of being used as a selection event.

At senior level, the Henley Royal Regatta casts a long shadow, and tomorrow’s men’s senior eight is set to be a straight final between St Michael’s, Shandon and a Shandon/UCC composite. They will, however, be competing for one of the most stunning of all Irish trophies, the Leander, which was held over from Cork regatta, which fell to bad weather earlier this season.

The cancellation of Cork and of Metropolitan brought into focus the increasingly shambolic nature of the Irish domestic season. The proposals for a new structure, which came before the Rowing Ireland executive last season, are described as “radical” by Anthony Dooley, the president of the union.

The executive want as many clubs as possible to be put in the picture before the full plan is made public. Briefings to clubs have begun. There will also be information meetings on each of the three days of the National Championships next month.

In broad outline, the proposals are understood to involve an extended regatta season, which would run from May to September. The National Championships would be split between mid summer (where big boats could take centre stage) and autumn. The regatta season would be structured so some events would be prioritised as a league; the preceding head of the river season would also be organised in a similar manner.

University clubs have been set against a longer season, and clubs have historically clung tightly to certain dates for their events.

Dooley is a proponent of this kind of change, because it would “open up the sport”. “It’s madness to have things closed down between mid July and early September,” he said yesterday.

The Ireland Adaptive coxed four which took a bronze medal at the Munich World Cup regatta have been chosen as the Afloat Rowers of the Month for June. The crew of Emer Patten, Shane Ryan, Kevin Du Toit, Sarah Caffrey and cox Laura Purdy become the second winners of the award, following May winner Lisa Dilleen.