Irish make annual exodus

ROWING: It's hard to think of an equivalent event in another Irish sport. This weekend hundreds of athletes, most of them young, will head off to take part in the KRSG regatta in Ghent, Belgium. It is as if the GAA held their provincial championship finals overseas.

"You have more Irish here than you do at Irish regattas," quipped the president of Commercial rowing club, Gerry Cantan.

The numbers tell the tale: 19 Irish clubs have 403 entries over the two days. Commercial, with 60, and Skibbereen (58), have entries commensurate with their size, but the biggest entry of all comes from Carlow, with 64, reflecting the size of the club's junior programme.

There is plenty of quality on show, with the top Irish juniors getting a chance to take on members of the British squad at this level. The entry at senior B, or under-23 level, is also strong - Ben and Kevin Clarke are part of the Commercial eight, and Trinity have also entered a senior B eight. International panellist Orla Hayes is part of the big Skibbereen entry.

Trinity and St Michael's have senior eights which will come up against the likes of Molesey, London and Oxford Brookes today. UCD's senior women's eight, starved of strong competition at home, get their chance to try more serious opposition in the run-up to Women's Henley and Henley Royal Regatta.

The Irish Amateur Rowing Union (IARU) have been quick to inform athletes that a condition of their being given permission to compete abroad is that they notify the union of wins, which affect their status in Ireland.

Starting at Neptune regatta, the IARU have been trialling an online registration system: athletes must be registered with the union to be allowed compete by the regatta secretary. Their wins should also become part of the databank, and at the end of the season if they have won often enough their status will change.

The feedback on the online system has been very positive, and the IARU are "fairly confident" the union will have a "dependable and reliable system" in place from next season.

The University of Limerick's Paddy Dooley scholarship has been awarded to Andy Hurley, who received €4,000.