ROWING: Over 1,800 rowers making up 720 crews have entered the Irish Rowing Championships starting next Thursday (Jul 14) at the National Rowing Centre, Inniscarra Lake, Cork.
Highlight of the three days competitions is the men’s senior eight taking place on Saturday afternoon. Reigning champions NUIG, who narrowly beat Queen’s in both 2009 and 2010, has this season linked up with Grainne Maol in a composite crew. With Cormac Folan, James Wall and Alan Martin still in the boat, this is the crew to beat. Most recently they beat UCD both at Henley and the Cork City Regatta.
Queen’s have kept a lower profile but with a crew that includes Michael Ewing, Rory O’Connor and Colin Willliamson, feel that this could be their year.
UCD lines out with a crew that includes old hands Finbar Manning, David Neale and Sean Jacob, while Trinity has entered a young and emerging crew.
In the single sculls, 17-year-old Paul O’Donovan of Skibbereen aims to become one of the youngest ever winners of the title. O’Donovan will have to fight off strong challenges from Muckross sculler Sean Casey, and John Keohane from Lee Valley, Cork. Only last week, Keohane beat O’Donovan for victory at the Cork City Regatta.
Derry rower Laura d’Urso, home from her college scholarship in the USA, leads an entry of 11 in the women’s single sculls. She stiff competition from Holly Dixon, of Portora, Skibbereen’s Orla Hayes, and Eimear Moran from Blessington.
Record numbers have entered the junior events, with 50 in the under 15 race, 43 at under 16 level and 29 scullers in junior 18.
SAILING: Sailors Mike Murphy from Waterford and Darren Nicholson are the only Irish crew in the TransQuadra – a transatlantic race for single and doubled-handed boats that set off earlier this week.
In their boat “Alchemiste”, the Irish pair set sail with a fleet of about 100 boats – all amateur – from St Nazaire in Brittany, France. A further 34 boats started from Barcelona in Spain. All are aiming for the island of Madeira in the mid-Atlantic, with the fastest expected to take about ten days.
Crews then get a six-month rest before a much longer stage from Madeira to Martinique next January. That stage is expected to take about three weeks. Murphy and Nicholason are veteran sailors who have competed in both Round Ireland and Fastnet races.
SWIMMING: Bethany Firth, aged just 15, proved the star of the Irish team at the Paralympic Swimming European Championships in Berlin when she finished second in the S14 100m in 1 minute 11.43 seconds. Firth had started her campaign with a fourth place in the 200m freestyle when she clocked a lifetime best of 2 minutes 20.33 seconds. Darragh McDonald was another medal winner for Ireland finishing third in the S6 400m freestyle. James Scully, Jonathan McGrath and Ellen Keane all swam lifetime bestsin their events.
RUGBY LEAGUE: Ireland’s rugby league team, recently promoted to full member status by both rugby league’s European and international federations, takes on Scotland and France in a round robin competition next autumn. With the countdown to the 2013 World Cup already underway, these will be the Irish Wolfhounds’ first full international matches since promotion.
First up is a match against Scotland at Glasgow on October 16. That’s followed by a home fixture in Thomond Park, Limerick against France on November 4 – a first rugby league international for the Munster stronghold.
ULTIMATE FRISBEE: Women – fancy keeping fit and having fun in an entirely new way? Then why not try ultimate frisbee? Every Thursday evening, St Anne’s Park, Raheny (6.45), is the venue for a women’s only ultimate frisbee session. On a rugby -style pitch, the teams of seven aim to make it across the endzone. Passing skills are premium and if you drop the disc, the other team gets possession. All ages and standards of fitness welcome. Contact womens.captain@jabbaultimate.com
ARCHERY: Dubliner Barry Guider leads the Irish team at the World Paralympic Archery Championships starting in Turin Italy this weekend. Guider, who struggled with an arm injury over the winter, proved he was back to full fitness at a recent shoot, when he missed a score of 11,000 by just two points. His ultimate target is London 2012, where he hopes to follow in the footsteps of Sean Heary who reached the quarter-finals in Beijing, knocking out the world number four.
SNOOKER: Although the U-16 team came out ahead, Ireland’s young snooker players narrowly lost to Wales in the annual Celtic Cup hosted by the Ivy Rooms, in Carlow. In only one of he five sessions were the Irish U-16 boys beaten with Josh Boileau from Newbridge compiling breaks of 67, 62 and 20 and losing only one of his matches. The U-14 team found it tougher, but managed to share one session with the strong team from Wales, who has also won last year.
A day later, the Irish beat Northern Ireland in the annual challenge cup, also in Carlow.
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