The big winners of last weekend's national championships? Well, Neptune of course, and particularly Neville Maxwell and Tony O'Connor, who won four titles each. Commercial's Mary Hussey and Debbie Stack, with five titles each, also have claims. But behind the headlines lies the admirable performance of Skibbereen.

Any club which wins three junior eights titles in-a-row is clearly doing something right: add in junior titles at coxed four (two in-a-row), and quadruple (three in-a-row), double and single sculls and a number of second places in adult events and coach Dominic Casey and his club deserve all the credit they receive.

And credit comes this weekend in two international events: the Nations Cup in Hamburg, an under-23 event where the team is wholly made up of the Skibbereen scullers John Whooley and Ross O'Donovan, and the Home Internationals at Inniscarra where many of last weekend's successful juniors represent their country.

Whooley, (19), is considering an offer of a scholarship to the University of California at Berkeley - Boston University scholarship student Fiola Foley made a good argument for this course by winning the intermediate single sculling title on Saturday.

Meanwhile, as predicted, O'Connor and Maxwell have opted for the lightweight pair for the World Championships and Derek Holland and Niall O'Toole will be tried as a lightweight double in Copenhagen next weekend - Vanessa Lawrenson and Ruth Doyle may also compete.