Indomitable Pollock an 'inspirational character'

ROWING: Training for top-class rowing is not easy, especially on winter mornings, but Brendan Smith has found inspiration from the other man in the boat with him, Mark Pollock. "If he can do it, there's no reason for me not to do it," says Smith of Pollock. For Pollock is totally blind.

The extraordinary 26-year-old from Belfast was part of successful Trinity crews as an undergraduate in the Dublin college, but his sight had failed by the time he left college, and rowing was not easy to organise any more.

"I always wanted to go back to rowing," he says, but time was the main restriction. He was combining a job with doing a Masters in Business at the Smurfit Business School in Dublin, now completed.

Smith teamed up with him again on the water last year, after returning from Australia, and they bought a boat in September. Two weeks ago they finished fifth in the men's open pair at the Tribesmen head of the river in Galway, and even more impressively Pollock stroked the Lady Elizabeth eight (a Trinity graduates club) to a fine 36th place in the Eights head of the river in London last weekend.

Pollock says he knows of no other rower with such a disability, but makes light of any technical difficulties in his role: as stroke he sets the rhythm for the boat and says coaches instruct oarsmen to close their eyes and feel the strokes. He used to cheat by keeping his open, he jokes, although not any more.

His ambitions in rowing are to make a crew in the Home Internationals and the Commonwealth Games this year. Right now he's hussling for sponsorship, not just for his own crew, which would be welcome - the company he works for recently went bust - but for the Trinity regatta next month, which he helps organise.

Off the water, the plan is to return to Trinity and qualify as an economist. He makes it sound easy. But then, as Smith says, he is truly "an inspirational character".

The a.g.m of the IARU tomorrow will be the focus of attention here this weekend - it is expected to be uncontentious. Tomorrow's Boat Race will bring action on the water.

Skibbereen, who have their head of the river at Inniscarra next weekend, are just one of a collection who are involved in ambitious programmes of development of facilities. Trinity and Neptune at Islandbridge in Dublin are among others expanding. The National Rowing Centre is also being transformed: new chief coach Hamish Burell, who begins work on Monday, is set to be based there.