ROWING NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS:THE FIRST day of the National Rowing Championships at the National Rowing Centre in Cork produced some excellent racing before appreciative crowds on calm water. Even the weather could not maintain its dull and drear appearance and the sun paid a visit late in the evening.

NUIG’s visitors’ crew from Henley of Cormac Folan, James Wall, Paul Giblin and Alan Martin were red-hot favourites to carry off the biggest prize of the day, the senior four, and they did so with the minimum of fuss.

The final of the senior quadruple scull was wildly different. Carlow’s crew of Aaron Bolger, Colm Murphy, Cormac Ryan and Kevin Coughlan – making a big breakthrough at this level – pipped University of Limerick by a tenth of a second in a photo finish.

Neptune were six seconds back in third. UCD and Commercial, who would have seen themselves as contenders, filled the fourth and fifth places.

The victory was particularly sweet for Carlow as their junior quadruple, drawn essentially from the same group, were denied by one foot by Offaly in 2007. The current Carlow juniors are no slouches either: Niall Murphy and Thomas Deere took the men’s junior pair title.

The men’s lightweight single scull was a statement of a sort by Dave Heffernan. The Shandon man has had a tough few years, having been badly injured in a car accident in 2006, then battling back to win the National Trials this year. Richard Coakley, the Skibbereen man who subbed into the lightweight four in Beijing, would have been favourite but Heffernan got out in front and kept him at bay for the whole 2,000 metres.

At 18, Peter Hanily has a dozen years on Heffernan, but the St Michael’s man has been pushing his way into the limelight. He won the competitive intermediate single sculls title.

In the women’s senior four, Muckross were runaway winners, suggesting that favouritism in for the Muckross/Carlow crew in the eight may be well grounded. But in a two-boat senior quadruple final, Old Collegians came out ahead of the Muckross women.

The final of the men’s junior 16 eight was won impressively by Portora. The Enniskillen club led for most of the race, with St Joseph’s of Galway pushing hard but never able to make up the crucial length between the boats.

Meanwhile, at the World Cup regatta in Lucerne, Seán Casey made it through to today’s semi-finals of the men’s single sculls with a solid performance which saw him take the second qualification place in last evening’s repechage. Casey led early on but Warren Anderson of the United States had drawn level by halfway and went on to win. Casey had been fourth in his heat, which was won by Tim Maeyens of Belgium.

The two women’s lightweight doubles both finished fourth in their repechages, both missing out on a place in the semi-finals. The two crews of Orla Hayes and Heather Campbell and Dympna Kelly and Sheila Clavin were competing together for the first time.

Lucerne (Irish interest); Men: Single Scull – Heat Two (first to semi-final A/B; rest to repechage): 1 Belgium (T Maeyens) 7:29.93, 4 Ireland (S Casey) 7:44.98. Repechage One (first Two to semi-final): 1 United States (W Anderson) 7:28.66, 2 Ireland (Casey) 7:31.61; 3 Finland 7:42.09, 4 France 7:47.92.

Women, Lightweight Double Scull – Heats (first two to Semi-Final A/B): Heat One: 1 Britain (H Goodsell, S Hosking) 7:25.19, 2 Greece (T Kalampoka, C Giazitzidou) 7:26.98; 6 Ireland One (H Campbell, O Hayes) 7:43.42. Heat Three: 1 Canada (L Jennerich, S Preston) 7:27.20, 2 Poland (M Kemnitz, A Renc) 7:30.33; 4 Ireland Two (D Kelly, S Clavin) 7:47.51. Repechages (first three to semi-finals; rest to C final): Repechage One: 1 Austria 7:43.59, 2 Netherlands 7:45.69, 3 United States 7:47.42; 4 Ireland One 7:54.09, 5 Sweden Two 8:03.82. Repechage Two: 1 Switzerland 7:44.97, 2 Hungary 7:46.27, 3 Sweden One 7:46.39; 4 Ireland Two 7:59.14, 5 Korea 8:03.95.

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS (National Rowing Centre, Farran Wood, Cork): Day one: Men’s Eight – Junior 16: 1 Portora 6:38.7, 2 St Joseph’s B 6:44.1, 3 Col Iognáid 7:03.5.

Four – Senior: 1 NUIG 6:21.1, 2 Commercial 6:25.2, 3 Belfast 6:30.2.

Junior, coxed: 1 St Joseph’s 6:51.7, 2 Clonmel 6:55.4, 3 Presentation 6:56.0.

Pair – Intermediate: 1 Skibbereen 7:05.7, 2 NUIG A 7:11.7, 3 Castleconnell 7:12.8. Junior: 1 Carlow 7:15.9, 2 Col Iognáid 7:16.7, 3 St Michael’s 7:30.9.

Sculling, Quadruple – Senior: 1 Carlow 6:19.0, 2 University of Limerick 6:19.1, 3 Neptune 6:25.0. Junior: 1 Skibbereen 6:23.1, 2 Portadown A 6:35.4, 3 Bann 6:43.1.

Double – Intermediate: 1 Tribesmen 7:36.4, 2 Belfast 7:51.4, 3 Cork 7:58.8. Single – Lightweight: 1 Shandon (D Heffernan) 7:16.1, 2 Skibbereen (R Coakley) 7:23.4, 3 NUIG (L Molloy) 7:28.3. Intermediate: 1 St Michael’s (P Hanily) 7:37.2, 2 Lee Vallye (Keohane) 7:48.8, 3 Bantry (Hurley) 7:51.6. Junior 16: 1 Muckross (Prendeville) 8:10.4, 2 Castleconnell (Sheehan) 8:19.1, 3 Neptune (O’Hara) 8:28.9.

Women Four – Senior: 1 Muckross A 7:02.8, 2 Old Collegians/Neptune 7:10.3, 3 Commercial 7:21.9. Pair – Junior: 1 Col Iognáid 7:57.0, 2 Tribesmen A 8:03.3, 3 Tribesmen B.

Sculling, Quadruple – Senior: 1 Old Collegians 7:09.6, 2 Muckross 7:24.6. Novice, coxed: 1 St Michael’s 8:02.2, 2 Killorglin A 8:03.5, 3 Waterford 8:06.6.

Junior, coxed: 1 Commercial 7:22.8, 2 Muckross 7:29.3, 3 Cork 7:33.7. Junior 16, coxed: 1 Portora A 7:59.9, 2 Cork 8:13.6, 3 Tribesmen 8:16.0.

Double – Junior: 1 City of Derry 7:39.3, 2 Skibbereen 7:44.6, 3 St Michael’s 8:11.5.

Single – Junior 15 – A Final: 1 Muckross (Cremin) 4:30.7, 2 Killorglin (O’Sullivan) 4:32.0, 3 Commercial (Farrall) 4:46.8. B Final: Waterford (McGrath) 4:36.3. C Final: St Michael’s (O’Brien) 4:30.7.