Rowing:He's been world champion twice and he's a multiple Olympian, but Sam Lynch got the biggest kick out of rowing last weekend. He occupied the six seat of the Shannon/St Michael's crew that won the senior eights title at the National Championships in Cork - the first time "the Big Pot" had gone to Limerick since 1927.

"I enjoyed the eight more than anything I've enjoyed in my life," says the St Michael's man, who was the world champion lightweight single sculler in 2001 and 2002. "It was the most positive rowing I've ever done."

He speaks of how the "great spirit in the group" made it a special experience.

Bowman Kenny McDonald had won a senior eights title in 2000 with Garda and in 2004 and 2005 with Commercial, but this was "the sweetest of all".

He recalls bringing down the Big Pot to Shannon in 2005, and firing the imaginations of men like Fergal and Michael O'Callaghan and Brian Collins, the Shannon oarsmen who were in the winning boat on Saturday.

St Michael's also had four rowers in the crew - Lynch, Kevin O'Connor, Eamon Joyce and James Harrington - along with cox Mike Griffin.

Indeed it was a great championships for St Michael's, who also won the women's senior quadruple scull (in combination with Skibbereen) and the junior women's double and single sculls.

And what of Lynch's potential. He is still only 31. Is the international scene a possibility?

"Oh, of course it is, it's always a possibility," he says.

The Limerickman, who is now taking on the long hours of an intern in St James's Hospital, became estranged from the international scene last year, coach Harald Jahrling insisting he had made every effort to bring him back into the system.

Lynch says the lack of success at the World Cup in Lucerne last weekend was worrying and he feels for the team.

"I just don't think the results reflect the effort that the athletes are putting in."