ROWING: A season which may prove to be momentous for Irish rowing dusts itself off and struggles into the light this weekend with the beginning of the national ergometer (rowing machine) tests.

Athletes outside the elite group who harbour hopes of representing Ireland in Athens in August and who did not participate in the national trial in November must provide independently verified tests before the end of the month to qualify for the national time trial on March 20th. Others will have their sights trained on Beijing in four years time.

The man in overall charge of the programme, national high performance director Richard Parr, says he expects many of the tests to be done in the coming days as athletes pace themselves for the St Michael's head of the river tomorrow week.

Parr believes he will have a high participation rate in the five-kilometre erg tests: only those with "a damn good reason" not to take part will be given leeway.

The elite group returned to their training camp in Seville last week. They take a short break, from January 30th to February 9th, before resuming their training.

Back in Ireland, the Irish Amateur Rowing Union has also been moving, to its new headquarters at Joyce Way in the Parkwest Business Park in west Dublin. The successor to departed chief executive Frank Tierney will, if the union's plans come to fruition, be chosen over the coming months and appointed in the summer. The union's annual general meeting will be held at the new headquarters in March.

Two of the "grand old men" of Irish rowing, Wally Stevens and Jimmy Bermingham, will be honoured for the services to Metropolitan Regatta at a special function in Dublin tomorrow night.