National coaches call for changes

ROWING: A typically hard-hitting report by national coach Harald Jahrling and his assistant, Debbie Fox, should provide some of the main talking points at the annual general meeting of the Irish Amateur Rowing Union in Dublin tomorrow.

Jahrling oversaw a season in which the lightweight men's four added a World Championship bronze medal to last year's silver. Two other Olympic-class crews, the men's heavyweight four and the lightweight women's double scull, finished seventh at the World Championships - comfortably inside the criteria to qualify these boats for the Olympic Games if crews reproduce the placings in this year's championships.

These results made for a season which the coaches deemed to be "reasonably successful", especially as the standard at top-class events internationally has "dramatically increased" since last year.

"We have been able to move along with the trend, which is good considering the conditions our athletes have to train under and the lack of science support in Ireland."

The coming of the Irish Institute of Sport (IIS) and the flexibility of funding offered by the Irish Sports Council (ISC) are cited as positive factors.

However, once they cast their eyes beyond the three top boats, Jahrling and Fox do not pull their punches. After trying different combinations in the lightweight double scull "we are miles away from achieving a qualifying spot". The most obvious reason for this is "the lack of excellence in sculling technique and rhythm. As long as we can not dramatically better the technique of our scullers even a good combination of two poor technicians will not make a huge difference."

In the quest to form a competitive lightweight double, Jahrling and Fox say they will look at developing a crew "through better technical development and earlier crew building. In order to achieve the latter we will encourage the scullers to form local doubles to compete at the December and February time trials and the March selection regatta."

Aside from the receipt of this report, tomorrow's agm at the IARU headquarters in Park West is expected to be a relatively low-key affair.

There will also be no elections as Frank Durkin (president), Denis O'Regan (honorary secretary) and John McGeehan (honorary treasurer) will be returned unopposed.