Busy time in Cork with Nationals and league debut

ROWING: THE SIX-LANE course at the National Rowing Centre comes into its own this weekend as hundreds compete over two days.

ROWING:THE SIX-LANE course at the National Rowing Centre comes into its own this weekend as hundreds compete over two days.

The national University and Schools’ Championships take the stage tomorrow, while Skibbereen regatta, the first of the new Grand League series, stretches over an 11-hour programme on Sunday.

While NUIG’s senior eight will be one of the big players as the season goes on – they are the national champions – they are absent from the fray at the University Championships.

Queen’s University will be hot favourites to take the senior eight crown. UCD may be their chief competition, and have the benefit of having John Forde of Galway Rowing Club in the seven seat – he is a student at the Dublin college. Trinity and the University of Limerick and Queen’s second eight complete the line-up.

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Under the new weighted scoring system, the Wylie Cup for best overall club may not go to Queen’s even if they are dominant in the final event of the day. However, they have strong hopes in the senior four and in the single scull, where the bulk of Eoin Mac Domhnaill will be pitted against some of the best lightweight scullers.

The competition for the Bank of Ireland Cup for women looks very open. NUIG and Queen’s take on UCD and Trinity in the senior eight.

The senior single should go to IT Tralee, represented by Monika Dukarska, but outstanding under-23 lightweight Claire Lambe, representing UCD, may give the tall Killorglin woman a decent challenge.

The Skibbereen Regatta will forever hold the title of the first Grand League event. In what is an admirable attempt to lift the sport here to a new level and create a logically organised season, there will be six Grand League events, with points being carried through from one through the others.

One innovation which will be closely watched is that finals will run on boat type rather than class – the top quadruple sculls race each other, for instance, whether they are junior, intermediate or senior crews.

It is an admirable project, but it may take a number of years to gel.

Queen’s again look like they will have it their own way in the men’s senior eight, where their only senior rivals are two composite crews.

The absence of Commercial and NUIG is unfortunate.

Even a project as ambitious as the Grand League exists in the real world, where travel is expensive and clubs weigh up trips carefully.

Expense is also a factor in the planning of the programme for the Ireland team this season. Ireland performance director Martin McElroy confirmed yesterday a relatively big group of 15 or 16 athletes will travel to the Wedau Regatta in Duisburg in Germany in five weeks, with performances there determining the size of the Ireland squad for the first World Cup in Bled two weeks later.

The one surprise is that Sanita Puspure, a Latvian who has been living in north county Dublin, will be part of the Ireland team for Duisburg. She has yet to receive her Irish passport but is eligible to compete in World Cups.

Liam Gorman

Liam Gorman

Liam Gorman is a contributor to The Irish Times specialising in rowing