New ideas on making the weight

ROWING:IRISH ROWING bounced out of the first World Cup regatta in Munich last weekend with an A final place for a new women's double and in generally good shape. But the eternal battle for lightweight rowers of making the weight while keeping all their power moved front and centre when the lightweight women's double pulled out of their B final after Siobhán McCrohan had struggled with getting the balance right.

Yesterday, Ireland performance director Martin McElroy spoke frankly about the issue. He said he did not see the problem as a continuing worry for McCrohan.

“I don’t think it will be. I think it is just part of her development as an athlete. She’s actually quite young and inexperienced (she is 23) even though she is one of the older athletes. So, everything is relative. She doesn’t have a great deal of experience of managing her weight.

“Also, how the weight is managed is a little bit different to what it was in the past. In the past there were a lot of dubious practices about how people managed their weight. We’re not interested in that – it needs to be done properly.”

McElroy said this was not a specific comment on McCrohan. “No, just historically, if you look across lightweight rowing in the past, people did all sorts of crazy things – sweating and wearing bags and all sorts of stuff. That would have culminated in the death of that German lightweight rower a few years ago.”

Joern Kerckhoff died after a “sweat run” when preparing for the World Cup in Munich in 2000.

“You have to be more scientific about it and realise that when you wake up the morning of a race you have to be within 600 grammes of your (racing) weight. That is about as much as you can do, safely, and still maintain your power.

“And given that you have only got two hours from the weigh-in to the race – there are all sorts of time limits and variables you need to work with to make sure you are going to get it right.”

The team’s next outing is in Britain in two weeks when they will test out the process of staying at Olympic accommodation, with the women competing at Women’s Henley and the men at the Olympic venue, Dorney Lake. McElroy said the emphasis is likely to be on under-23 boats, the other strand in the strategy in this Olympic qualification year.

A host of top Ireland crews will be competing at the Olympic venue this weekend, at the Metropolitan regatta, which can influence seeding at Henley Royal Regatta. Among the outstanding entrants are UCD, who have crews in the elite eights and in the elite fours, and NUIG/Grainne Mhaol, whose elite four are drawn against University of Limerick, who defeated them at Limerick regatta.

Queen’s University are entered in the elite quadruple sculls, and Skibbereen’s Paul O’Donovan is entered in the senior single sculls although he is more likely to compete in the refixed Dublin Metropolitan regatta at Blessington tomorrow.

The shorter programme now starts at 9am, with the last race, the men’s Division One eights final, fixed for 5.24pm.