Fixtures clash can be avoided

ROWING: Which is the busiest day for domestic rowing in the regatta season? The National Championships? Metropolitan regatta? No.

Tomorrow week, when three regattas are scheduled for the same day that sees an exodus of Irish rowers to Ghent for two days of competition.

Limerick regatta joined Portora and Lee on this day only because the organisers asked the IARU to move the regatta from the original date of May 24th, with the agreement of the other concerned regattas, as Limerick's original date would clash with the European Cup rugby final. This is hardly a concern now, except for rowers who are also Francophiles.

The change was agreed at the end of March, but the calendar on the official Irish rowing website, iaru.ie, was still telling its public until yesterday that Limerick regatta was on May 24th.

Many regattas are offering weak programmes, and there has been a strong trend both towards regionalisation of regattas and of rowers participating in foreign events instead of supporting Irish ones. Scheduling three domestic events on the same day does not seem to be the way forward.

However, the regattas on this Bank Holiday weekend do offer hints of how to deal with the emerging problems. Portadown tomorrow has a junior regatta with 90 entries - restricted because the aim is to finish in time to let those travelling long distances to return home at a reasonable hour. Bantry, also tomorrow, runs its under-16 events under IARU rules but the rest as an "invitation" event, so results will not change the status of competitors.

Monday brings the inaugural Connacht Schools Championships at Lanesboro, which may be the beginning of a welcome trend, with plans to extend such competition to provincial and national levels.

The dearth of women rowers in regattas is starkly evident this year, and made last weekend's dedication of a Commercial boat to Tina Brennan (nee Kavanagh), one of the trailblazers for women in the sport, all the more poignant.

A current female international, Bantry's Alison Downey, was recently honoured as winner of the women's open section of the Cork Sculling Ladder. David Heffernan of Old Bones was the men's open winner.