O'Callaghan defends NRC's developments

RowingOlympics over, issues in domestic rowing swing back centre stage with a vengeance.

One of the perennial gripes of many in rowing centres around the National Rowing Centre in Cork. Those who dislike it for being too far from many of the most active clubs, particularly in Dublin and Northern Ireland, had fuel added to their fire during this year's National Championships.

A dispute arose about a Northern Irish crew's placing. This brought into question how the venue had no finish tower, an unsatisfactory timing system and no photo-finish equipment.

The matter will be aired next weekend when the championship secretary, Kieran Kerr, delivers a very critical report to the executive of the Irish Amateur Rowing Union.

Kerr, a FISA umpire, says that proper equipment and an up-to-date course is "the least athletes at our premier regatta should expect".

The developers of the centre recently received a Government grant of €750,000. According to Kerr there is a groundswell of opinion that priority should be given to laying down an international-class albano course, an adjustable start and a proper finish tower rather than developing more buildings.

Mick O'Callaghan, tasked with overseeing the NRC's development isn't too worried about the criticism. "I am confident that a modern timing system and a photo finish system will be in place for next year's Championships," he said yesterday. The course will also be upgraded for the regatta season with a finish tower also planned.

In the next fortnight builders will begin work on a sewage treatment plant, while work on the main building's second tier will begin next year and should be completed in 2006. The change of plan from a three-storey structure to a two-storey one has delayed development.

O'Callaghan says that of €2.8 million originally granted in the region of €1.5 million has been spent so far. "We are making sure we get value for money," he says.

O'Callaghan believes that another €2 million will see a top-class facility here. An accommodation block to house 50 people is part of the plan.

The Irish Canoe Union are holding their national sprint championships there this weekend, a facility he hopes the sport will use.

He adds that Ireland's elite rowers should see the centre as a base, and doubts whether camps on the Continent are necessary. Elite athletes who were based at the NRC in the past were critical of it, but O'Callaghan is brusque. "They need to get tougher," he says.

The decision to choose a relatively remote part of Cork for the NRC had nothing to do with him, "I was just the person on the ground. In hindsight I should have stayed away from it. But I am definitely going to see it through."