ROWING: In the wake of a big boost for Irish rowing which saw Thor Nilsen nominated as world coach of the year by world governing body FIFA, and his charge, Sam Lynch, as male rower or crew of the year, the Norwegian was yesterday all but confirmed as the head of the Irish coaching structures for the year ahead.

After a meeting between representatives of the Irish Amateur Rowing Union (IARU) and the Irish Sports Council yesterday, a statement was released confirming that Nilsen is to be given the role for at least one of the next two years in the run-up to the Athens Olympics. He will have an assistant, probably Tony O'Connor, who is already in place to the end of this year.

This means there will be no head coach as such, although the new high-performance director may take over some of the coaching. Sebastiaan Peeters will continue to take charge of the large under-23 group which has been hived off from High Performance grant aid.

The other big news yesterday was that 11 candidates have applied for the high-performance director job, and this has been whittled down to a shortlist of three.