ROWING/News: Richard Parr, a Canadian who has been working with the New Zealand Rowing Association, has been appointed performance director for Irish rowing.

Parr, who will take up the position with the Irish Amateur Rowing Union on January 5th, has been South Island Academy coach in New Zealand. Parr was named as junior high performance manager with the country's team for the Junior World Championships earlier this year.

According to an IARU strategy document earlier this year Parr's role - originally titled high performance director - is to have responsibility to the union to produce medal-winning crews for Athens 2004. He will have a direct role with the Sports Council of Ireland, work with the team liaison to organise travel and accommodation and ensure the international rowing programme is within budget.

It is understood that Parr and a highly-respected Irishman were the last two in the running for the post.

Norwegian Thor Nilsen was recently given responsibility for the coaching side of international rowing, and another part of the revamp of structures will soon be in place when a full-time assistant coach is appointed.

Experienced international Tony O'Connor has been performing this role, and the advertisement for the permanent post leaves the possibility open of him being chosen to continue until after the 2004 Olympics.

The bulk of the high performance athletes will head for a training camp in Spain next weekend.

Back in Ireland, the St Michael's head of the river, scheduled for tomorrow, has been rescheduled for Saturday, February 1st. The organising committee announced last week that recent weather conditions meant safety might have been compromised if the race had gone ahead tomorrow.