Novice McGlade proves he has what it takes

Rowing Column: Ian McGlade, a 39-year-old from Castlereagh, Co Antrim, who had not set foot in a rowing boat 18 months ago, was celebrating in Antigua yesterday after rowing across the Atlantic with English crewmate Andy Watson.

"The awesome thing about it is that we are not really rowers," said the man who took an oar in his hand for the first time in Lagan Scullers club in 2006.

"You don't really need to be a great rower to do it. You need to be able to row, obviously, but you just need perseverance, because you do have some amazing highs and amazing lows."

Before the race, McGlade spoke to Gearóid Towey, who with Ciarán Lewis attempted the last Atlantic Rowing Race in 2005/2006, only to have to abandon when their boat was wrecked by a freak wave.

The contact may have been fortuitous - McGlade and Watson were also capsized by a big wave, but their boat righted itself and McGlade says the capsize shocked him out of the "despair" he had fallen into over their lack of progress and spurred him on.

Towey bounced back from his Atlantic attempt - sponsored, incidentally, by Denis O'Brien's Digicell - to take silver at the World Championships in Eton in 2006 in the lightweight four.

That exact crew - Towey, Eugene Coakley, Richard Archibald and strokeman Paul Griffin - compete internationally for the first time since then this weekend in the Fisa Team Cup in Seville.

The event is an early-season test over the non-championship distances of 1,000 metres (Saturday) and 500 metres (Sunday), but the nascent Irish 2008 squad will be seeing competitive action for the first time.

With only four months to go to the Olympic Qualifiers there will be much interest in how the selections of lightweight coach John Holland and head coach Harald Jahrling perform.

Niamh Ní Cheilleachair (stroke) and Orlagh Duddy will form a lightweight double, as will Cathal Moynihan (stroke) and Richard Coakley.

Coakley, who was not named among the carded athletes for the year ahead, may yet be among the recipients of grants under developmental criteria.

Heavyweight single sculler Seán Jacob has been named as the athletes' representative on the international committee.

Back on Irish waters, the inaugural Head of the Shannon will take place in Carrick-on-Shannon tomorrow.

There will be two time-trial races, at 11am and 2.30pm, with quite an impressive entry.

One of the great Irish clubs, Neptune, celebrate their centenary next Wednesday.

The world governing body, Fisa, will hold off on further action against the Russian authorities for use of doping paraphernalia following a pledge by senior figures in Russian sport that the board of the rowing federation would be replaced.