Selected group stakes claims this weekend

ROWING:DECISION TIME has arrived for rowers with international ambitions this season. A selected group of athletes will stake their claim this weekend at the National Rowing Centre for a place in Ireland crews.

The senior group at the trials may go into finals as early as this morning, as unpredictable weather forces Ireland performance director Martin McElroy to consider altering the original timetable.

There is a relatively small senior group, but some of the match-ups should be interesting. In the senior pairs two of the most experienced oarsmen in the country, Seán Jacob and Cormac Folan, are set to take on UCD young guns Finbar Manning and Dave Neale, with lightweights Anthony English and Peter Hanily also testing themselves in this company.

The competitive lightweight men’s group will suffer for the loss of two men who have had to withdraw due to illness. Mark O’Donovan has been impressive in the assessment process so far, and Jonathan Mitchell stroked the Queen’s eight at the Head of the River in London last weekend. Orla Hayes has also had to withdraw from the women’s lightweight trial.

The heavyweight women’s trial pits Lisa Dilleen against two women who must wait to qualify fully for Ireland, Sanita Puspure and Monika Dukarska.

The first outing for Ireland crews picked after this weekend’s trials will be the Duisburg regatta in mid-May. Ireland will also have a team at the first and third in the World Cup series (Bled in Slovenia and Lucerne in late May and early July respectively).

The European Championships in September may become the crucial decider as to which, if any, Ireland crews go on to the World Championships, as these are abnormally late this this year (October/November), because they are in New Zealand.

McElroy was keen to point out yesterday that athletes who are ill do not fall out of the process – they will have performed at previous assessment events to even reach this stage.

Meanwhile, Martin Walsh was thrilled this week to be preparing to row in the Oxford crew for tomorrow’s Boat Race in London (4.30pm, BBC1). The 24-year-old Dubliner, who twice rowed for Oxford reserve crew Isis, said the race is “one of the most exciting things” he will do in his life.

Walsh is the first Irishman to compete in the Boat Race since Paddy Mant represented Cambridge in 1989, according to the official Boat Race site. But the Rathgar man has a more personal reason to feel that tomorrow is a special day. His grandfather, Cornelius (Con) Lucey had rowed with Thames Tradesmen in his youth, and when on his deathbed he asked: “who won the Boat Race?” The women tending to him made up an answer, but then he asked: “By how much?” This year, Oxford are hot favourites. Walsh has been receiving calls, texts and emailed messages of support from Ireland.

When The Irish Times spoke to him he was endeavouring to keep up with them all by buying a more modern phone.

Music can help humans through the hardest of struggles. Atlantic rower Seán McGowan seems to have both wind and waves behind him these days, but the underlying currents are sabotaging his efforts. He is two-thirds of the way across an ocean and seemingly stuck there, running to stand still.

He looked up and saw an aeroplane and it lifted his spirits – a sound of humanity breaking through the monotonous thrum of wind and ocean.

And, on his MP3 player, he is listening to stirring songs.

On Saturday, he did an exceptional 40 nautical miles (74 kilometres) by his own measurements and the moment was memorable. “The one thing sticks in my mind is that I had tricolours fluttering at the back (of the boat) just where I was looking. I was listening to U2 as I was catching a huge, monster wave. The Irish thing comes into it, then.

“Three songs directly after that came (the theme song from) Titanic.” He laughs. His wife, Lorraine, had loaded the playlist, and he joked with her about the selection. “I didn’t tell her that I was on a huge wave when I heard it!”

His best estimate is that the early days of next week will bring a change.