ROWING NEWS:IRELAND HAS landed a man with an estimable record to head up its international rowing programme. Morten Espersen, a 61-year-old Dane, was high performance rowing director for Denmark from 1993 to 2001 and then went on to chair Denmark's executive board for elite rowing.
In those two decades the rowers in red and white won medals in all five Olympic Games, culminating in gold, silver and bronze at London 2012, which made it the top-performing sport at the Games for Denmark.
Espersen, who lectures in sports science at third level, will take up his post as high performance director in February. The chief executive of Rowing Ireland, Frank Coghlan, said yesterday the Dane will be based at the National Rowing Centre in Cork and it is understood he will live in Ireland.
Coghlan, who led an impressively well-marshalled interview process, described Espersen’s appointment as an “exciting opportunity for Irish rowing”.
“The task of achieving international results for Irish Rowing will require hard work and co-operation between athletes, coaches and clubs,” Espersen said in a statement.
“Rowing Ireland has the potential to succeed at the highest level and, working together with all stakeholders, I believe that this goal can be achieved.”
This appointment could be a good fit. Denmark is a country of almost exactly the same size as Ireland (it has a population of 5.6 million) but it has built a more robust rowing programme.
Its successes have come in lightweight boats, in which Ireland has traditionally been strong: the lightweight double won gold in London, and the lightweight four, one of the greatest crews of all time, have medalled at the last five Olympics.
Fie Udby Erichsen, who took silver in London, competed in the women’s single sculls, in which Ireland was represented by Sanita Puspure.
Espersen’s major challenge will be to build on the programme put in place by Martin McElroy (with most of the progress coming at underage level) and to do what he can to broaden the base.
Ideally, he would also build bridges with clubs, as many feel divorced from the present HPD set-up.
There are certainly gifted rowers in the system, many of them just teenagers. Last weekend Holly Nixon and her University of Virginia crew placed third in the Championship Eight at the Head of the Charles in Boston. Nixon is just 18.
Espersen is set to attend next weekend’s Fisa Coaches Conference in Limerick, and while he will not officially take over for three months, the time in between will be busy. Adrian Cassidy, the lead coach of Rowing Ireland, will oversee the first national assessment of the new Olympiad in just four weeks’ time at Newry. There will be a 2,000 metre ergometer (rowing machine) test on the Saturday and a 5,000 metre on-the-water time trial for those who make it through. The process is set to culminate next spring with national trials at the National Rowing Centre.
The Cork venue will offer more to both club and international rowers from spring of next year. It will have a new albano course, start tower and adjustable start, both of which were used during the Paralympic Games at Eton Dorney. A new slip will allow access to the lake even when levels are low.
One of the first decisions Espersen will need to take will be to choose the events in which Ireland will participate next season. The first World Cup is in Sydney in March. Even if Ireland opts to miss it, there will be an Irish presence. Fisa umpire Kieran Kerr, who is heavily involved in planning the Coaches Conference for next weekend, will be part of the jury.
