NEPTUNE'S practised self assurance in the eight, not dampened either by results in earlier events or the heavy rain, again separated them from stronger opposition when they won the Senior Championship title at Inniscarra, Co Cork, yesterday.
Raced through by St Michael's and Shannon composites twice in as many days, the Neptune seniors started their final firmly in the shadow of the championships' dark horse crew, conceding the advantage in strength.
All five finalists - UCD, The Limerick composite, Neptune, Trinity and Muckross/Fossa juniors set off strongly with Neptune edging ahead after the first few strokes, but unable to break away. Both fours finals had been decided by St Michael's/Shannon's burst in the middle stages of the course and now Neptune pre empted the strategy with the first of several long pushes from 700 metres out.
"The boat just lifted out of the water. It had been so responsive we kept on winding it up whenever we saw Trinity and the composite come back," said Adrian Smith later. Smith, who joined the boat after its Thames Cup win, attributed the two thirds length win to confidence, in spite of the St Michael's/Shannon gatecrashing appearance.
"They were the unknown entity and it gave us a bit of a shock. But (coach) Peter Buckley told us to focus on our own boat and it wasn't enough to upset it."
In the Limerick composite,
Brian Collins was racing for his fourth title at these championships, having rowed number three in both coxed and coxless fours, and stroked the Shannon pair, with Fergal O'Callaghan, to victory.
The commercial sculler, Lar Collins, also ended the championships with three titles. Victories in the quad and, with Emmet O'Brien, the double were rounded off with a victory in the open sculls.
Early mornings spent at Blessington paid off for Collins, with a strong final 250 metres. It now seems Collins is likely to be included in either a quad or double with Emmet O'Brien, John Armstrong and one other.
Wearing national colours at the home international in Strathclyde on Saturday will be the entire UCDL eight, who won the women's senior title by one and a half lengths from Neptune to take the Colleges sixth sweep title from the seven available - Neptune winning the intermediate coxed four.
UCDL's senior coach. Nick Mahoney, singled out the novices as having produced the most exceptional results. First and second in the coxed fours, they took the eights title under strong pressure from the Shandon juniors. And this with none of the UCDL oarswomen having rowed for more than a year.
"All the things we were concentrating on we won, said Mahoney, who also pointed to the success of his senior women.
In the process, Vanessa Lawrenson and Debbie Stack picked up a hat trick of titles. They will now race as part of a world championship four with Mary Hussey, who won the women's open sculls title by a distance, and either Michelle O'Connor from Fermoy or Neptune's Cliona McHenry.
