Weather averts selection row

ROWING: The selection regatta scheduled for tomorrow and Sunday at the National Rowing Centre on Inniscarra Lake has been postponed for a week due to bad weather.

The regatta is the first stage of what is to be a week of national trials. According to a statement from the Irish Amateur Rowing Union: "The regatta will now take place on Saturday and Sunday, March 27th and 28th. If there are still adverse weather conditions at that point the regatta will be held on the first subsequent raceable day."

The postponement may head off a row which would have left the trials for heavyweight athletes without one of the top competitors.

Galway man Serryth Colbert is set to row tomorrow for his club, Leander, in the London head of the river as part of a star-studded eight, but he had been told that his consequent unavailability for the first day of the trials meant he would not be considered for selection for his country at Athens.

Colbert said he was deeply frustrated that this clash might rob him of his chance to compete for his country in the Olympic Games.

Colbert (30), who moved to England two years ago intent on making his mark at the prestigious Leander club, has been picked by Leander and Britain coach Jurgen Grobler to be part of a crew which includes multiple Olympic gold medallists James Cracknell and Matthew Pinsent, along with a who's who of current British internationals.

Colbert had offered to fly back to Ireland late tomorrow night, and make himself available for the rest of the week of trials, but national high performance coach Richard Parr made it clear that this was not acceptable.

"When the best coach in the world puts you in the best crew in the world you would think that would bring you recognition," was Colbert's contention.

Yesterday Parr said that Colbert could compete in the process. "If he wishes to contact me he will be welcome to do so," said the man who is in overall charge of the trials.