RowingHarald Jahrling, the German who coached the Australian women's team at the Athens Olympics, has been appointed as the new Ireland head coach.
Jahrling (50), who won gold as an oarsman at the 1976 and 1980 Olympic Games, has an impressive list of achievements as a coach, making history when he guided the Australian women's eight to their first World Championship gold in 2001.
However he is now at the centre of a storm in Australia because of the performance of one of the women's eight in Athens. Sally Robbins stirred up huge controversy by laying down in the boat in the final and robbing her colleagues of any chance of a medal.
The latest twist in the saga came on Wednesday when parents of some of the other oarswomen were quoted in the Melbourne Age newspaper as claiming the crew wanted to replace Robbins after the repechage but the coach would not.
John Doyle, the father of rower Kyeema Doyle, said the crew had lined up an alternative rower for the final. "The coach was aware but he couldn't get Sally out of the crew," Doyle said.
President Frank Durkin pointed out, however, it would not have been in Jahrling's power to change a crew once it had already raced. "You actually can't drop someone from a crew unless they are sick or injured," he said.
According to his contract, which runs until 2008, Jahrling will be based at the National Rowing Centre at Inniscarra Lake in Cork, which may prove controversial.
Many elite athletes study or work in Dublin and would not be in favour of any plan to base them in the remote Cork venue.
Durkin said yesterday the moving of the international team to the NRC was likely to be done in "the medium term".
The Irish Indoor Rowing Championships at University College Dublin on Sunday has an entry of 257, but apart from Heather Boyle of Tribesmen and Jonny Devitt of Old Collegians, few of the top names have entered.
Organiser John Holland said yesterday he was disappointed there wasn't a bigger push by rowing people.
"I believe that the powers that be should take on board that here's an opportunity to promote the sport," he said.
