Mixed programme proving a big success

ROWING NEWS:THE SEASON is falling into place. What started out as an idea of three people – Mark Pattison, Brenda Ewing and Pat McInerney – has taken on the physical form of a structured programme of regattas, with big multilane regattas (the eFlow Go Row League) interspersed with smaller events in a more social format.

Tomorrow’s Neptune Regatta at Islandbridge, like Trinity’s two weeks’ ago, has a long programme of two-boat racing. Spectators can drop along to Islandbridge and watch mostly young crews testing the waters without the fear of fierce competition from boats of different classes. The women’s senior fours, with entries from both UCD and Trinity, is the premier contest in terms of standard.

The tenor of eFlow League is very different. Skibbereen regatta last weekend was a bumper non-stop day of top-class racing with the emphasis firmly on the on-the-water activities.

The potential of the National Rowing Centre has surely never been as consummately tapped: the big team of organisers used all eight lanes of the course to give each of over 500 crews two races each; they wrested full value from the boathouse as nerve centre and feeding station. And the weather was generally splendid.

There were many highlights: Trinity’s men’s novice eight, crucial in their annexing of the Wylie Cup at the Irish Universities’ Championships the day before, again left UCD trailing. Skibbereen had a one-two-three in the women’s double scull and and a one-two in the men’s quadruple – they head the league table. Queen’s won the men’s Division One four and eight with a novice – Tiernan Oliver – in both crews.

Queen’s host next weekend’s eFlow Go Row League regatta at Castlewellan. The arrival of coach Mick Desmond has proved a boost – even though Three Castles, his former club, did very well in the women’s events, topped off by a win for Helen Walshe in the Division One single sculls.

If the League regattas lack one important thing, it is the social aspect that Neptune should boast tomorrow. For spectators and parents the NRC can be a dusty, out-of-the-way place with problematic sightlines. In a sporting event of such size, a marquee would not go astray. The organisers should be able to manage it – they have done everything else splendidly.

On the international front the Ireland team for the first World Cup regatta of the season, in Belgrade in two weeks’ time, will feature the two crews which medalled at the regatta in Piediluco in Italy last weekend: the lightweight men’s double of Mark O’Donovan and Niall Kenny and the women’s single of Sanita Puspure. Michael Maher and Claire Lambe will compete in lightweight single sculls, and Siobhán McCrohan may also compete in this class. Lisa Dilleen is recovering from illness and may be entered in the open single scull.

The formation of a women’s open double scull of Dilleen and Puspure for the Olympic Qualifier next month is now “unlikely”, according to Martin McElroy of the Ireland high performance programme.