McGowan rowing back and Griffin back rowing

ROWING

TODAY A tale of three oarsmen: one on the way back, one on the way up, and one in the middle of a storm far out at sea.

The stormbound one is Seán McGowan. The tempest which has assailed the boats in the Atlantic rowing race has battered his small craft, Tess, and the Limerick man has been pushed backwards on his course from the Canaries to Antigua by two nautical miles.

This is less than most of the 29 crews in the race, and McGowan reported yesterday on his Facebook site he was “amazed and delighted (Tess) is able to climb some of these waves”. The conditions were “scary stuff”.

After 24 days at sea, Tess was 757 kilometres into the 4,719 of the race. She was trailing the field, but by just 93 kilometres.

The rower returning to the sport is two-time Olympian Paul Griffin. His hopes of competing at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver ended on Wednesday when the Olympic Council of Ireland announced that PJ Barron, who is British but qualifies for an Irish passport, would represent Ireland in the 15km cross country ski event.

A disappointed Griffin claimed the nationality transfer rule “was stretched” for Barron, who represented Britain and Ireland within 12 months. However, the president of Snow Sports Ireland, who nominated Barron, said the world governing body of the sport, FIS, had “controlled that completely – we just handed the whole issue over and said ‘this has to be done through the front door, properly’”.

Norwood said the decision to choose Barron was primarily based on the fact he was judged likely to perform better than Griffin in Vancouver, given better performances in the qualification procedure, and “there were two occasions when they went head-to-head and on both occasions PJ was in ahead of Paul”.

Griffin had “done the most amazing thing” in transferring from one Olympic sport to another in a very short time, Norwood opined. “If he had more time it might have been the other way around. But that’s pure speculation.” He added: “We would be keen for him to keep going. We would be happy to support him.”

Griffin, however, intends to go back to the sport which saw him stroke the Ireland lightweight four which finished sixth in Athens and 10th in Beijing.

He will row again this year, but does not expect to be in the condition to row internationally this summer and does not intend to trial in the coming months. “I don’t have any rowing in my muscles (right now),” he said.

He may compete in the trials for next season, but his hopes of competing in London 2012 depend on both his perception that there is the possibility of an Olympic-class lightweight four emerging (the one boat in which he can realistically hope to qualify), and that he is back to the required standard in both hunger and ability. “It’s very much a wait and see.”

In the more immediate future, one athlete on the up is Dubliner Martin Walsh (24), tipped for the prestigious stroke seat on the Oxford boat for this year’s Boat Race in London. Walsh, who stroked the reserve boat, Isis, to victory last year, was guarded if optimistic yesterday, saying he did not know if any decision had been made yet.

“It’s going really well. Things are going fine here; nothing’s official for a while yet.”

Walsh, who competed for Ireland last season, looks set to return to Dublin to do medicine in the next academic year.

Tomorrow’s Head of the Shannon at Carrick-on-Shannon has a particularly strong entry in the men’s and women’s junior eights. St Joseph’s, Bann and Portora, one, two and three at the National Championships last year, contest the men’s competition, while Portora and Commercial, first and second at the Championships, face each other in the women’s junior 18 event.

Trinity, with two crews, and Commercial have entered the men’s senior eights, while a strong NUIG crew of Dave Mannion, Pádraig Bracken, Evin Donnelly and Niall Kenny has been entered in the men’s senior four.

Rowing Ireland has, meanwhile, put a deadline of Sunday, January 31st for clubs to pay affiliation fees for the season. This is a month’s grace, but clubs failing to pay will be suspended from the tracker system necessary to enter events.