Gearoid Towey's third win at the Australian Rowing Championships in Queensland, this time teaming up with UTS clubmate Rob Mitchell in the lightweight double scull, provided a pleasant background for the first regattas of the year. The premier story at the domestic regattas, Commercial yesterday and Neptune on Saturday, concerned the Garda senior men's eight.
In the incessant rain yesterday the national champions powered down the course to beat a Commercial crew packed with big names, but the story in the weak sunshine on Saturday had been very different - they lost in the final to a Neptune crew containing five intermediate oarsmen.
Neptune's eight (boosted, it must be noted, by the presence of senior championship winners Neville Maxwell and Neil Casey) established a lead early on and held out to win by three-quarters of a length.
In the senior one fours a Commercial crew with plenty of experience - Fran O'Toole (41) and Emmet Byrne (33) teamed up with Neal Byrne (24) and Owen Byrne (21) - deprived Garda of the other big prize on the day by three lengths.
It was a day when years were worn lightly: John Armstrong (38) pulled off a surprise victory over his conqueror of last year, Neil Casey (20) in the semi-final of the men's senior one single sculls, and then went on to beat Galway's Adrian McCallion (38 yesterday) in the final, where McCallion caught a crab when leading early on.
