O'Brien's Bridge plays host to brightest students

Rowing/ Weekend preview: Munster is the place to be for top-class rowing this weekend: today's Irish University Championships and tomorrow's Limerick Regatta are at O'Brien's Bridge on the the Clare-Limerick border, and the national camp for the elite athletes is fixed for Cork tomorrow and Sunday.

NUIG look set up to successfully defend their Wylie Cup for overall men's winners and may land the women's Bank of Ireland Cup as well today, but the presence of crews from colleges like Limerick Institute of Technology, powered by their St Michael's contingent, and NUI Maynooth, who have a Neptune cadre, add spice to the occasion.

NUIM have an ace in 18-year-old sculler Paul O'Brien. The broad-shouldered Dubliner is one of Ireland's best athletes. Last Saturday as part of the international selection programme he did an outstanding ergometer test of six minutes 4.5 seconds in the morning and then went on to win the senior singles title at Neptune's regatta, beating Cathal Moynihan and former international Derek Holland in the process.

O'Brien is off to the international camp in Cork tomorrow, but today he teams up with fellow Neptune man Aodhan Kelly in the senior double scull and he will also compete in the senior and intermediate single scull.

The senior single has a class field, O'Brien takes on his doubles partner in last year's World Junior Championships, Rory O'Connor (DCU), and an outstanding senior international lightweight in Richard Coakley (UCC) - and that's just in the heat. The other side of the draw features Rob Michael of UCD, who at 27 should have an advantage in physical maturity.

The broader question of age - whether to persist with proven older athletes or place faith in less experienced competitors in the hope that they presage a bright future - is one faced by most sports clubs and may be a big one in the domestic rowing season this year.

The Neptune senior eight, which upset the older heads in the Commercial crew at Neptune's regatta last weekend, had an average age in the mid-20s, and tomorrow St Michael's put out a very young senior eight in their own regatta.

They will face favourites NUIG as well as Trinity - but more acutely interesting will be the clash of the host eight and a composite which includes some St Michael's men who have proved themselves in the past.

The women's senior eights final should give some indication of whether UCD will, as some expect, dominate this season. NUIG and University of Limerick provide the competition tomorrow.

Meanwhile, one of Ireland's best female rowers of recent years, Siobhán Jacob, has retired from the international scene. The medical doctor has been working in sports medicine at Cappagh Hospital, and it is understood she may join the international set-up in this capacity.

Extraordinary news from women's rowing further afield is that Emily Kohl and Sarah Kessans, whose boat, American Fire, capsized in the Atlantic Rowing Race, intend to compete again next year in the same boat, which has been found in good shape.