ROWING NEWS ROUND-UP:A WINTER OF hard weather and poor pickings in competitive terms will be banished to the memory banks tomorrow as top Irish crews go into battle – but at separate venues.
Seven of Ireland’s top eights are set to compete at the prestigious Head of the River in London, while the Tribesmen Head in Galway draws a huge number of competitors to what is the traditional spring lift-off for the season in this country.
Queen’s University have been quite outstanding in early-season fare at Lagan and Erne heads, and they might just turn this form into a wake-up call for some of the English eights in London. Their top eight goes off 16th in the time-trial format, and coach Mark Fangen-Hall has also entered a second crew, which goes off 82nd.
UCD, with the Gannon Cup victory and a win in the Dublin head under their belts, also field two crews (23rd and 114th), while Commercial (69th), Trinity (83rd) and University of Limerick (111th) will relish testing themselves against some of the best oarsmen in the world.
Tideway Scullers (with Alan Campbell in the crew) and Leander look set to fight it out for fastest crew on the day.
In Galway, over 200 crews are entered in the three heads (10.30am, 2pm and 4.15pm), and there will be a unique ceremonial row by the great Seán Drea.
The event will also stage the inaugural national eights head and the national fours head, which had to be postponed earlier.
The “clash-of-heads” with London has profoundly weakened the competition. NUIG, with big names like Cormac Folan and Alan Martin on board, look a shoo-in for both fours and eights titles.
In the men’s junior 18 eight, Presentation of Cork and Galway’s St Joseph’s (the Bish) and Coláiste Iognáid (the Jez) look set to be the big contenders. The absence of pace-setters Bann and their northern rivals Portora is a pity.
Meanwhile, Atlantic rower Seán McGowan crossed a big psychological boundary yesterday. The Limerickman, who is attempting to row solo from the Canaries to Antigua, today has less than 1,000 nautical miles to go. The distance from coast to coast is 2,548nm (4,719km).
Speaking to The Irish Timesyesterday as he closed in on the mark, he said it would be an important moment for him.
“I’m anxious now to see it. I was pretty down this morning and I’m looking forward to seeing three digits (nautical miles to go) on the GPS rather than four. Hopefully the next 1,000 will go quickly – much faster than the first 1,500.”
He moved into his 81st day at sea yesterday after a relatively good week in mileage terms, although currents and winds have been tricky in recent days.
