Rowing: Rowing people who take time to peruse the Athens Review may find one phrase jumping out at them: the athlete-focused philosophy of the last Olympic cycle is set to give way to an "athlete-focused, coach-led" approach. The words could have been lifted from the lips of Harald Jahrling.

The Ireland head coach will be putting his mantra into action this weekend as he takes charge of his biggest event in this country so far when over 100 of Ireland's best rowers participate in a national trial at the National Rowing Centre in Cork.

The camp is the first on-the-water event in a structure which leads in four-week cycles through two national selection trials and on to the first World Cup regatta at Dorney Lake in England in late May.

Interestingly, Albert Maher, who has only been peripherally involved in the national structures in recent years, is due to take on Seán Jacob, Seán Casey and other leading single scullers tomorrow and Sunday.

Jahrling spent the last 15 years coaching in Australia and has no doubts about the merits of one of the most far-reaching of the recommendations of the Athens Review: Ireland should have an Institute of Sport, says the man who worked alongside both the state and national institutes Down Under.

If rowing comes out reasonably well from the review, one is left wondering how an analysis of (at best) a one-medal Games can end up displeasing none of the power blocks.

If focus is a key consideration, might not the "political difficulty" between the Olympic Council and the Sports Council, as it is dubbed (Review, page 53), still be a distraction? And if rowing wishes to learn its own lessons and move on, why has it still to record, in public, any official view of the weight-loss issue involving Sam Lynch and Gearóid Towey?

One of the men involved in the tale of the scales, Towey, certainly has moved on. This weekend's Outdoor Adventure Show in the RDS gives the Cork oarsman a chance to publicise his coming participation in the Atlantic race.

Also taking on different challenges are the bulk of the Denmark lightweight four which, over the last 10 years or so, have been, in boxing parlance, the best pound-for-pound crew in the world.

Eskild Ebbesen is retiring, Thomas Ebert will follow after this year's World Championships and Stephan Moelvig has stepped away, at least for the present.