Gold medallists at last weekend's World Cup regatta in Lucerne, Tony O'Connor and Neville Maxwell are hot tips to add to their heavy medal haul at the National Championships at Inniscarra in Cork this weekend.
The championships are among the most eagerly anticipated in recent years: not least because the venue, just this week a recipient of £500,000 from the Government to help develop it into an international-standard regatta course, will be closely examined by competitors and spectators to see if recent improvements will defuse criticism, particularly of the slips.
Added to this will be the natural high standard of competition on display and the fact that the event will have a say in who represents Ireland at the World Championships in St Catherine's in Canada next month.
In this respect, much too depends on O'Connor and Maxwell themselves, who as Neptune club members, take on a comprehensive schedule this weekend. Last year they won four titles each (Maxwell is a record holder with 15 in all), and could match the tally this weekend, with most believing that the Neptune eight is almost impossible to beat given that it is powered by the pair and their colleagues in the national lightweight four, Derek Holland and Brendan Dolan.
But while the four will be team-mates this weekend, should O'Connor and Maxwell decide to compete as a pair in Canada, as now seems likely, the four will not go, meaning that qualifying this boat for the Olympics in Sydney would be left to the much more difficult route of qualification regattas next year.
Holland and Dolan - who has recovered from injury - will thus be free to compete in other boats. Although it is not widely known, national coach Thor Nilsen yesterday confirmed that if the pair goes to Canada he hopes to team Holland with former world champion Niall O'Toole in an effort to develop a lightweight double which would try and qualify for the Olympics in Canada. "Yes, this is an idea I have," Nilsen said in a phone interview. "If the four are not going to St Catherine's I want to see Derek and Niall coming over to me (in Stromstad in Sweden) and going on to the regatta in Copenhagen to row against the Danes and the Swedes." The national coach also confirmed that Neptune single sculler Albert Maher's chances of going to St Catherine's are still alive. "First he has to be Irish champion," Nilsen said.
Maher is the reigning national champion, but may not have it all his own way over the weekend. The most obvious threat is the bronze medallist from Lucerne in the lightweight single scull, Sam Lynch of St Michael's. But the dark horse of the weekend could be Offaly teenager Padraic Hussey, a natural heavyweight who pushed Maher hardest of all last year.
Virtually everyone seems certain that the senior eights title will be won by Neptune again, with the lightweight four most likely being joined by Frank Sheridan, Paul Hickey, Simon Wyss and Donal Hanrahan.
Trinity did well at Henley, but their crew is weakened by the back injury recently sustained by James Lupton. Garda have the crew which also performed well at Henley, but they, too, see little chance of an upset, since captain Graham Tolan is still out with injury. Commercial and UCC are also in the straight final, which is scheduled as the last race in the regatta, at 6.30 on Sunday.
The Commercial women's eight, which is powered by the best women's scullers in Ireland, including the women's heavyweight double of Debbie Stack and Mary Hussey, which will represent Ireland at St Catherine's, may mirror Neptune in retaining their title. Stack and Hussey will have their own battle to determine the best women's single sculler, with Hussey the defending champion.
In the men's events, both coxless and coxed fours give Trinity some chance of depriving Neptune of a title - particularly since Darren Barber, the giant Canadian Olympian, will row for Trinity in the coxed four.
But Neptune seem the hottest of hot tips in the pair: World Cup gold medallists Tony O'Connor and Neville Maxwell would win in nearly any regatta just now.
