Skibbereen head suggests new format may catch on

THE IDEA of a new set of national heads of the river may come into its own in time, but on Saturday the lift-off ran into the reality of heads of the river at this time of the year: competitors at the Skibbereen head, which staged the new competition, came almost in their entirety from Munster.

The organisers deserve great credit for running a good event at the National Rowing Centre, and in the case of the men’s national single sculls head the inaugural winner was both local and a man boldly staking his claim on the national scene.

Twenty-one-year old Skibbereen man Mark O’Donovan won the lightweight section of the recent national trials and topped the rankings of the national competition on Saturday, albeit ahead of just two other entrants.

The women’s open singles title went to Sheila Clavin, ahead of the sole other entrant, Dympna Kelly.

The St Michael’s/Carrick-on-Suir duo then took the senior doubles titles by virtue of being the only entrants.

In the men’s equivalent, O’Donovan and Richard Coakley teamed up to become the inaugural winners.

The junior events drew bigger numbers, but again from the Munster region.

Shane O’Driscoll and Shelly Dineen, both from the host club, took the junior 18 titles.

“It was good to run off the event and get it done,” said Pat McInerney, one of the main movers behind the plan for national heads.

He noted the difficulty of the time of the year, and the lack of entries from clubs in Leinster and Ulster.

“We wanted to see how the national event format worked, and it worked very well. Having all the scullers in the one race is a lot better than having them spread over a rolling head. That worked out very well.”

Commercial flew the flag for Dublin, and in the rolling head which ran around the national event their senior eight were the fastest crew home, 23 seconds ahead of the second-placed St Michael’s quadruple scull.