Irish crews bid for Henley spots

ROWING/Round-Up: Three Irish crews compete in qualifiers today hopeful of making the starting line-up for Henley Royal Regatta, which begins on Wednesday.

Con Collis has perhaps the most difficult task: the Commercial sculler must be one of the fastest eight of 26 hopefuls for the Diamond Sculls, one of the most demanding events.

The UCD women's eight have superior odds in the qualifier for the Remenham Cup as five of the 10 hopefuls will make it through.

Methodist College, Belfast, should also make it through the qualifiers for the Princess Elizabeth for schools eights.

Methody took the unusual step of competing in the senior eights at Athlone regatta last weekend and finished second to NUIG.

The hopes of Lady Elizabeth in the Thames Cup took a knock at the weekend. The Irish crew finished two lengths behind London Rowing Club at Marlow regatta, which may endanger their chances of being selected (seeded) in the draw for Henley which will be made tomorrow.

Ireland field a strong, youthful team for the Amsterdam regatta this weekend and the performances should give a good indication of how the crews will do at the World Under-23 Championships in Belgrade in four weeks time, for which they have been selected.

Skibbereen's Paul O'Sullivan goes in the single scull, Alison Downey in the lightweight women's single and Stuart King and Mike Ryder in the lightweight men's pair. The lightweight men's four will be Ciarán Hayes, Richard Coakley, Danny O'Dowd and Dave Mannion.

Timmy Harnedy, only 20 but impressing hugely at the senior Ireland training camp in Sweden, will represent Ireland at Belgrade in a lightweight single scull - but only if he is not chosen in a Senior A double or four.

Ireland will have a heavyweight men's four at Belgrade, which will be selected on July 15th at the National Rowing Centre. NUIG's Alan Martin and Paul Giblin are definites, and the trial will fill two seats from three competitors: Mark Stevens (NUIG and Temple, USA), Ken McCarthy (Skibbereen), and Merlin Tanner (Bantry).

Back home, Monkstown and Cork Harbour stage their regatta tomorrow, and there will be some interest in how UCC do against the host club in the women's eight, given that there has been much speculation about a composite of the two clubs competing in the National Championships next month.