# ROWING: The Neptune Head of the River at Blessington gave Niall Kenny and some other top Galway rowers a chance to blow off the cobwebs in the run-up to the National Assessment in two weeks’ time in Newry. Kenny, a lightweight, won the single sculls well with his effort in the better conditions of the second head.

The honour of being the fastest eight was taken with ease by Trinity – St Michael’s damaged the fin on their boat in the first head and did not do as well as they would have liked in a borrowed boat in the second. Trinity were the women’s eight winners and Marie O’Neill of Cork the fastest women’s single sculler.

Neptune Head of the River, Blessington, Saturday (Selected Results)

Men

Eight – Senior: 1 Trinity (head one) 12 minutes 13 seconds, 2 St Michael’s (head 2) 12:24, 3 St Michael’s (head 1) 13:13. Intermediate: Trinity (2) 12:23, 2 Neptune (1) 13:24, 3 Trinity (2) 16:17. Novice: 1 Trinity (2) 13:31, 2 NUIG (2) 13:40, 3 Trinity (1) 13:42. Junior 18: Neptune (2) 12:39, 2 Neptune (1) 13:39, 3 Cork BC (1) 13:41. Junior 16: 1 Portora (1) 13:26, 2 Neptune (2) 14:03, 3 Commercial (2) 14:24. Masters: Old Collegians (1) 14:17.

Four – Senior: 1 St Michael's 12:51, 2 NUIG A/Grainne Mhaol/UCC (head 1) 13:07, 3 NUIG/St Joseph’s (1) 13:08. Intermediate: 1 NUIG B (2) 13:18, 2 NUIG (2) 13:33, 3 Trinity (1) 13:38. Junior 18: 1 Neptune (1) 14:11. Masters: Old Collegians (1) 14:49.

Sculling,

Double – Senior: 1 Trinity (Flaherty, Hughes) (Head 2) 13:57, 2 Commercial (1) 14:11, 3 Graiguenamanagh (2) 15:24. Single: 1 UCC (N Kenny) (2) 14:48, 2 NUIG (Mullarkey) (2) 15:03, 3 NUIG (S O’Connor) (2) 15:23, 4 Commercial (A Maher) (1) 15:26, 5 University of Limerick (Brinn) (1) 15:42, 6 Commercial (Gleeson) (1) 15:50. Intermediate: 1 NUIG (Egan) (2) 15:34, 2 Neptune (O’Connor) (1) 15:35, 3 St Michael’s (Stundon) (1) 15:45.

Women

Eight – Senior: 1 Trinity (2) 14:09, 2 Trinity (1) 14:26, 3 Trinity B (2) 14:26. Intermediate: Trinity (1) 14:36. Novice: 1 Trinity (1) 16:10, 2 Trinity (2) 16:32, 3 Commercial (2) 16:46Junior: 1 Carrick-on-Shannon (2) 15:25, 2 Portora (2) 15:34, 3 Graiguenamanagh (1) 16:10. Junior 16: 1 Portora (1) 15:32, 2 Carlow (2) 17:02, 3 Portora (2) 17:15.

Four – Senior: 1 Cork BC (2) 14:38, 2 St Michael’s (1) 15:30, 3 Commercial (2) 15:30. Intermediate: 1 NUIG (2) 15:58, 2 NUIG (1) 16:53, 3 NUIG B (1) 16:59.

Sculling

Double – Senior: 1 NUIG (1) 15:42, 2 Three Castles (2) 15:43, 3 St Michael’s (2) 16:05.

Single – Senior: 1 Cork (M O’Neill) (1) 16:45, 2 Three Castles (Quinn) (1) 16:53, 3 Trinity (Cooney) (2) 17:00. Intermediate: 1 Trinity (Dolan) (1) 16:53, 2 Trinity (O’Brien) (1) 17:02, 3 NUIG (Hurst) (2) 17:18.

# ROWING: The World Rowing Coaches Conference in Limerick over the weekend saw Irish delegates mix with the men and women who guided crews to glory at London 2012 in a well-run event. The presentation by Thomas Poulsen of Denmark was highly-praised, and there was a thought-provoking talk by German team psychologist Dr Annelen Collatz. Gearoid Towey spoke about the importance of managing the transition of athletes to life away from top-class sport and Martin McElroy also made a presentation.

The year of the Olympic Games is a good time to hold this event and delegates got a feel of being in the engine of world rowing as top coaches and mentors thrashed out proposed changes to rules which can be made early next year. A proposal to put the onus on each athlete to reach a set weight in a lightweight boat was controversial and discussed at length on Saturday evening.

The World Rowing Awards for 2012 were presented to the South Africa lightweight four (male crew of the year) and Britain’s women’s double sculls (female crew of the year). The coach of the year was Dick Tonks of New Zealand and single sculler Huang Cheng of China took the award for adaptive crew of the year. Di Ellis was given the award for distinguished service to rowing.    

At the conclusion of the business side of the event, John Boultby, the chairman of Fisa’s competitive rowing committee, said the logistical organisation in Limerick had been “superb”.

# ROWING: The Afloat Rower of the Month for October is Holly Nixon. The 18-year-old Fermanagh woman is on scholarship to the University of Virginia in the United States, and she rowed in the number three seat of the crew which finished an impressive third in the Women’s Championships Eights at the Head of the Charles in Boston. This was the top position for a college crew, and placed them ahead of the Dutch and Canadian national teams.

Rower of the Month awards: The judging panel is made up of Liam Gorman, rowing correspondent of The Irish Times and David O'Brien, Editor of Afloat magazine. Monthly awards for achievements during the year will appear on afloat.ie and the overall national award will be presented to the person or crew who, in the judges' opinion, achieved the most notable results in, or made the most significant contribution to rowing during 2012. Keep a monthly eye on progress and watch our 2012 champions list grow.

# ROWING: Rowing Ireland have chosen Morten Espersen to be their new High Performance Director. The 61-year-old served as HPD in Denmark from 1993 to 2001 and went on to chair Denmark’s executive board for elite rowing. Denmark has had great success in the last two decades: their premier crew, the lightweight four, took three gold and two bronze medals in the last five Olympic Games, while the lightweight double scull took gold at London 2012. Fie Udby Erichsen also took a silver medal in the women's single sculls in London. 

In a statement released by Rowing Ireland, Espersen said: “Rowing Ireland has the potential to succeed at the highest level and, working together with all stakeholders, I believe that this goal can be achieved.”

Espersen will take up his post in February. He will be based at the National Rowing Centre in Cork. He succeeds Martin McElroy, who has recently been appointed Performance Director for men's rowing in Canada.

#gandelow – The Ilen School Gandelow Races on Sunday October 28th are shaping up to be another exciting river sporting event. The races, which can be watched from the river banks, will be started from Howley's Quay adjacent to Clohessy's Bar.

This unique traditional boat sporting event has attracted 10 teams from Limerick City and County as well as County Clare. With such strong teams we can expect to see more great racing this October Weekend. The first race will start at 2.00 pm. Prize money and trophies for first and second place.

# ROWING: Dave Neale of UCD won the time trial of the Dublin Sculling Ladder at Islandbridge on Saturday. The Offalyman, who also won the Tullamore Time Trial last weekend, headed up the list of 180 contestants with a time of six minutes 51.82 seconds. Albert Maher of Commercial was second and the best junior of the day, Andrew Griffin of UCD came in an impressive third.

The best junior woman, Sally O’Brien of Trinity, also excelled – she was less than three seconds slower than women’s open winner, Amy Bulman of UCD.

Dublin Sculling Ladder Time Trial, Saturday, Islandbridge

Overall: 1 D Neale (UCD) 6 mins 51.82 seconds, 2 A Maher (Commercial) 7:01.58, 3 A Grffin (UCD) 7:14.10, 4 M Bailey (UCD) 7:15.9, 5 P Hughes (Trinity) 7:16.72, 6 P Flaherty (Trinity) 7:19.99.

Men - Open: 1 Neale 6:51.92, 2 Maher 7:01.58, 3 Bailey 7:15.9, 4 Hughes 7:16.72, 5 Flaherty 7:19.99, 6 C Dowling (Commercial) 7:20.51. Junior: 1 Griffin 7:14.10, 2 S Mulvaney (Neptune) 7:40.61, 3 C Flynn (Neptune) 7:44.85.

Women – Open: 1 A Bulman (UCD) 8:09.11, 2 S Foreman (Old Collegians) 8:12.18, 3 G Foley (Commercial) 8:22.97. Junior: 1 S O’Brien (Trinity) 8:11.71, 2 A Rodger (Commercial) 8:28.13, 3 P Mulligan (Portora) 8:32.16.

# ROWING: The Tullamore Time Trial drew a big entry on Saturday, with Dave Neale of UCD coming out on top with a time of eight minutes 26.40 seconds. Neale’s closest rival was Rory O’Connor of Queen’s University, who also learned his craft with Offaly Rowing Club. Sheila Clavin of St Michael’s in Limerick was the fastest woman, clocking 9:28.60.

Tullamore Time Trial, Saturday (Selected Results)

Overall: 1 D Neale (UCD) 8:26.40, 2 Neale 8:32.50, 3 R O’Connor (Queen’s) 8:39.00, 4 M McKibbin (Queen’s) 8:44.90, 5 McKibbin 8:56.40, 6 A Bolger (Carlow) 8:56.50. ]

Men – Open: Neale 8:26.40. Intermediate: McKibbin 8:44.90. Junior 18: Molloy (Athlone) 9:01.10. Junior 16: Egan (Athlone)

Women – Open: S Clavin (St Michael’s) 9:31.20. Intermediate: A Bulman (UCD) 9:30.40. Junior 18: Kelly (Carrick-on-Shannon) 10:06.60. Junior 16: McCabe (Carrick-on-Shannon) 10:41.30. Masters A: S Clavin (St Michael’s) 9:28.60.

# ROWING: The Afloat Rower of the Month for September is Claire Lambe. The UCD student took silver for Ireland at the World University Rowing Championships at Kazan in Russia in the lightweight single sculls. Back in July, Lambe (22) was disappointed to finish one place outside a medal at the World Under-23 Championships, but three days later she picked herself up and began training for the senior World Championships, where she finished 11th. “I think I learnt a lot about myself in doing that. You just have to get up when you’ve been knocked down and keep going,” she said.

Rower of the Month awards: The judging panel is made up of Liam Gorman, rowing correspondent of The Irish Times and David O'Brien, Editor of Afloat magazine. Monthly awards for achievements during the year will appear on afloat.ie and the overall national award will be presented to the person or crew who, in the judges' opinion, achieved the most notable results in, or made the most significant contribution to rowing during 2012. Keep a monthly eye on progress and watch our 2012 champions list grow.

# ROWING: Ireland’s Claire Lambe took silver at the World University Rowing Championships in Kazan in Russia this morning. Kirsten McCann of South Africa got ahead of her at the start and maintained the lead under pressure from Lambe to take gold.

Lambe, a UCD student, was capping off a good season in the lightweight single sculls: she took fourth in World Under-23 Championships and 11th in the senior World Championships.

Ireland’s Niall Kenny finished fifth in his A Final of the lightweight single sculls and the women’s four were sixth in theirs.

World University Rowing Championships, Kazan, Russia – Day Three (Irish interest)

Men

Lightweight Single Sculls – A Final: 1 Hungary (P Galambos) 6:58.78, 2 Poland (BS Lesniak) 6:58.84, 3 Switzerland (M Schmid) 7:02.81; 4 Italy 7:07.16, 5 Ireland (N Kenny) 7:09.96, 6 Belgium 7:13.25.

Women

Four – A Final: 1 Russia 6:45.22, 2 Netherlands 6:55.02, 3 Poland 6:56.92, 4 Ukraine 7:02.56, 5 New Zealand 7:05.90, 6 Ireland (H Lavery, E Kerrigan, A Greene, C McIlwaine) 7:09.00.

Lightweight Single Sculls – A Final: 1 South Africa (K McCann) 7:38.47, 2 Ireland (C Lambe) 7:43.19, 3 Netherlands (NE Van Hoogenhuijze) 7:53.39; 4 Poland 8:01.04, 5 New Zealand 8:03.29, 6 Czech Republic 8:07.36.

# ROWING: The Ireland men’s four won their B Final at the World University Rowing Championships in Kazan in Russia today. The crew of Shane O’Driscoll (a lightweight), Sean O’Connor, Eddie Mullarkey and Irish American Tom Lynam had 3.9 seconds to spare over the Czech Republic in the battle for a win and seventh place overall. The Ukraine finished a distant third, ninth of the nine crews competing.  

World University Rowing Championships, Kazan, Russia – Day Two (Irish interest)

Men

Four – Repechage (First Two to A Final; rest to B Final): 1 Italy 6:45.36, 2 Russia 6:47.49; 3 Ireland (S O’Driscoll, S O’Connor, E Mullarkey, T Lynam) 6:55.40, 4 Czech Republic 7:03.36, 5 Ukraine 7:15.06. B Final: 1 Ireland 7:01.77, 2 Czech Republic 7:05.67, 3 Ukraine 7:36.51.

Lightweight Single Sculls – Semi-Final Two (Three to A Final): 2 Ireland (N Kenny).

Women

Four – Repechage (First Four to A Final): 1 Poland 7:28.96, 2 Ukraine 7:32.44, 3 Ireland (A Greene, E Kerrigan, H Lavery, C McIlwaine) 7:39.82, 4 New Zealand 7:40.17; 5 Norway 7:43.28.