How many sportspeople are still getting better at 38 years of age? Well one is: Belfast's John Armstrong yesterday won his 12th national title on the first day of the championships here at Farran Wood in Cork, and, with only two years of his thirties left, was able to smile and say it was one of the fastest times he had rowed in a race.
"It's the first of the millennium," he joked after taking the lightweight single scull title. "I rowed as good a race as I ever have. It's my first time under seven minutes (his time was 6:58) under any conditions."
Indeed it was a fine row, as he had to fight off the late push by UCC's Eugene Coakley. Armstrong, who is part of a composite eight entered here - "I'd love to win in an eight, all my titles are in singles" - certainly made a strong case for his inclusion in a lightweight quadruple scull for the World Championships.
The availability of Derek Holland and Niall O'Toole after their failure to gain an Olympic place as a lightweight double at Lucerne certainly throws open that selection. Holland is entered here as part of the Neptune eight.
Ironically, conditions here, despite a relatively strong wind, were more pleasant than at the Swiss venue in recent days.
But news coming in from the first day of the World Cup meet in Lucerne was very good. Both lightweight single scullers, Sinead Jennings and Sam Lynch, made it straight through to today's semi-finals after good wins in their heats.
Back in Cork, there was disappointment for Offaly's Mary Hussey, rowing for Commercial, who failed in her first bid of the weekend to win a title in the women's senior pair final. But Offaly's junior double scull had a good win.
Eimear Moran, who will team up with Eileen Wholley of Skibbereen in the junior double at the Coupe de la Jeunesse (a European junior championship), had her fourth win in four events when teamed with Rebecca Warner in the Offaly double. Warner is a King's Hospital student and they won at Women's Henley when competing as King's Hospital.
A certain well-known rower presented the prize, and as Warner, like Moran only 16, knew what was best about the year: "Meeting Steven Redgrave has been the highlight".
There were six junior titles on offer yesterday evening and Skibbereen won the other five; the men's junior four, the penultimate race of the day, provided a tremendous battle with Cork Boat Club fighting all the way only to catch a crab with less than 100 metres left and be pipped by another of Dominic Casey's all-conquering crews.
