The Olympic Federation of Ireland is using the example of how its Olympic Rowing team is denied access to the water due to COVID-19 travel restrictions as part of a plea for a number of 'straightforward measures' to be put in place to support prospective Olympic and Paralympic athletes preparing for Tokyo 2021.

The OFI called today for measures to be put in place to support athletes during the current crisis. Sport Ireland, the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and the relevant Ministers have all been working very hard to request minor exemptions for Olympic and Paralympic athletes but unfortunately, there has been no green light to their requests to date.

Not all Olympic sports are affected, however, as Olympic sailing team members returned to training at Irish Sailing's Dun Laoghaire Harbour High-Performance Centre on May 18 as Afloat reported here with Olympic silver medalist Annalise Murphy getting back training after 55 days in lockdown.

The measures are being requested for a very small number of prospective Tokyo athletes (approx. 200 across Ireland) in line with medically reviewed, internationally accepted health protocols The situation is becoming increasingly difficult as more and more competitor nations return to training, putting Irish athletes at a significant disadvantage that may soon become too big to breach.

Peter Sherrard, Olympic Federation of Ireland CEO explains, “To take one sport as an example, we have a situation at the moment where rowing clubs for recreational users in Ireland are open in line with government protocols, yet our Olympic rowers can’t access the water in line with those same protocols because they are living outside the permitted kilometre radius from their national training centre. The solution is a simple waiver from the relevant Health authorities for this small number of athletes so that they can travel the required distance to train, just as their competitors internationally have been granted weeks ago. Frustrations of this nature are being experienced by elite athletes from a variety of sports.

“Our Olympic Sports have all prepared very detailed protocols which have been reviewed medically for a return to the venues like the Sport Ireland Campus, the Sport Ireland Institute and the National Aquatic Centre and National Rowing Centre, in advance of, and in isolation from the general public, as is happening in other European countries.

“Irish sport and Irish athletes have been incredibly respectful throughout lockdown and will continue to support all the measures that need to be implemented. While phased plans have been agreed for a recreational return to sport, we believe that the Olympic and Paralympic athletes who represent us internationally need prioritisation to return without delay.

“As a group, the athletes of Team Ireland have shown true resilience and have been role models to us all throughout this crisis, but the longer they are away from their high-performance training environments, the harder it will be for them to return to optimum fitness and their peak performance in time for next year’s Games.”

Two Irish High-Performance rowers, Sanita Puspure and Aifric Keogh broke the half marathon world records in their categories in today's Virtual Regatta run by Rowing Ireland.

Sanita has broken the world record previously held by Lauren Schmetterling (USA) who set the new record earlier this year with a time of 01:18:14.8 in the 30-39 category. Sanita has now set the new world record at 01:18:13.6.

Aifric broke the record for the 19-29 category, beating Brooke Mooney’s (USA) time of 1:19:12.6 set this year. Aifric has now set the new world record at 01:18:59.9.

Aifric Keogh

Rowing Ireland is awaiting confirmation from Concept 2 with the PMS Verification codes sent across this morning.

Puspure said, “I started the session without much of a thought about records, but felt good and decided to give it a try. Not a bad day on the rooftop!”

World Record Holder, Aifirc Keogh said ”It was my first time doing a half marathon on the erg so I didn’t know what to expect. My plan was to keep the first half steady and then if I felt good to try push on for the second half. It was fun to try a new challenge during lockdown but now that’s it’s done, I won’t be in a hurry to do it again!"

Rowing Ireland await confirmation from Concept II as clubs continue to submit their entries over today and tomorrow.

Irish rowing clubs have been asked to close down completely. The Rowing Ireland working group on Covid-19 took into account government guidelines and requested this in the interests of club members.

 The working group will also consider the implications of the ongoing lack of competition on the novice grade, once there is more clarity on whether or when there will be competition this season. They have decided that umpires with a provincial licence will not need to re-sit a test and and “can carry the two regatta requirement to later on this year or next year”.

Peadar Casey, who has died aged 86, was involved with rowing virtually all his adult life, often in very senior roles. He also played a big part in Olympic sport in Ireland.

He was a member of the Garda Síochána from 1953 to 1989 and he became honorary treasurer of Garda Síochána Boat Club in the late 1950s. The honorary treasurer role was one he would take on for a succession of bodies for most of the rest of his long life. He served in that capacity for Dublin Metropolitan Regatta, the Dublin Municipal Rowing Centre and then the Irish Amateur Rowing Union (which would become Rowing Ireland).

He was elected to the Olympic Council of Ireland and became honorary treasurer in 1996, a position he retained until retirement in 2014.    

Peadar Casey was team manager for rowing at the 1980 Olympics Games in Moscow and the 1984 Montreal Olympics. He was chosen as deputy Chef de Mission to the Irish Olympic team in Atlanta 1996 and then Chef de Mission for the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000. 

His lifetime of dedication to sports administration had all kicked off when he took up rowing in the formative years of Garda Síochána Boat club when he had become champion of Ireland on multiple occasions. 

He will be much missed by his family, friends and all those who knew him in the world of rowing and the Olympic Games. 

A south Galway potter is embarking on a 350km row down the Shannon-Erne waterway in a handmade boat in memory of a close friend writes Lorna Siggins

Weather permitting, Kinvara artist Joe McCaul (65) set out from Belleek, Co Fermanagh today on the first leg of his transit to Limerick.

With him will be a heart-shaped box with ashes of his close friend, Joe Stewart, a carpenter and experienced oarsman from Antrim who had planned to build the plywood rowing boat with him.

Mr McCaul will raise funds for the Galway Hospice as a tribute to Mr Stewart.

“The boat is named after the two Joes, and he would get a good laugh out of it if he was here,” Mr McCaul said.

Joe McCaul with his rowing boat in build

“It started off with a chat in a pub, and I said I would love to build a boat,” Mr McCaul says.

“Joe Stewart died in his sleep, and I rang the suppliers the day we buried him and they said the boat kit was ready for dispatch, so I decided to go ahead and finished it myself,”Mr McCaul explains.

Growing up near the waterway at Belturbet, Co Cavan, he says he is looking forward to navigating the Shannon-Erne system, and reckons lower Lough Erne will be the most exposed part.

He tested the craft for its rolling ability by capsizing it a week ago in Galway Bay, and reckons it is easy to right.

It was launched at the Cruinniú na mBád in his home harbour of Kinvara, south Galway earlier last month, and he says that “the QE2 could not have had a better send-off when it first hit the water”.

Mr McCaul will draw and paint en route through towns including Belleek, Enniskillen, Belturbet, Ballinamore, Leitrim, Carrick-on-Shannon, Roosky, Athlone, Shannonbridge, Terryglass, Scarriff, Killaloe and finally to Limerick.

His wife, Mary Harrison, retires from teaching shortly and is undertaking a walk along the Camino route in northern Spain. He plans to fly out to Bilbao in Spain when he is finished and they can compare notes on their respective pilgrimages on land and water.

For updates and to support Joe McCaul’s rowing fundraiser for Galway Hospice, see here

The refixed University Rowing Championships of Ireland at Lough Rinn saw UCD and Trinity take some of the big prizes. NUIG and UCD tied on points in the overall rankings, with UCD crowned champions because they had seven wins to NUIG’s six.

UCD also won the Wylie Cup for men, coming out on top by virtue of taking the senior and novice eights.

Trinity’s women won the Bank of Ireland trophy because of their victories in the intermediate and club eights. NUIG won the women’s senior eights.

#Rowing: Gary O’Donovan took sixth place in his heat of the lightweight single sculls at the European Rowing Championships in Lucerne this morning. The Skibbereen man, competing for the first time at this level in a single, found himself at the back of the field early on and while he pushed into fifth he saw the race disappear from him in the final sprint. Martino Goretti of Italy set the early pace and won.

European Championships, Lucerne, Day One (Irish interest)

Men

Double – Heat One (First Two to A/B Semi-Finals; rest to Repechages): 1 Ireland (P Doyle, R Byrne) 6:26.53, 2 Romania 6:29.62.

Lightweight Single Sculls – Heat One (First Two to A/B Semi-Finals; rest to Repechages): 1 Italy (M Goretti) 7:05.54, 2 Switzerland (J Schaeuble) 7:06.73; 6 Ireland (G O’Donovan) 7:34.73.

Over the years, rowing has had its highs and lows in Cork Harbour, where the history of the sport on Leeside as the River Lee wends its way from the city towards the harbour mouth, can be traced to the founding of the Cork Harbour Rowing Club in Glenbrook.

That is one of three closely-linked harbourside communities, situated between the town of Passage West and the village of Monkstown, both of which have followed the rowing tradition, even though the Glenbrook Club no longer exists.

Even though it is no longer in existence, the 160th anniversary of its founding will be celebrated this Saturday with the marking of the ‘Passage of Time” at Passage West, when the town’s Rowing Club hosts ‘The Middle Harbour Race.’

“Today, the sport is stronger than ever in our harbour with three river clubs, six coastal clubs and a very active currach scene. Saturday will see boats of all descriptions take to the water to celebrate the history of rowing in the harbour,” Laura O’Mahony of the Passage Club told me. Passage West Rowing Club Committee

Racing will begin at 11 a.m. and include the Fr. Mathew Challenge for currachs, the Captain Mackey Challenge for kayaks; the Ringmahon House Challenge, for FISA/one designs; the Lough Mahon Challenge 3km sprint and a very special 3-mile race for the Middle Harbour Cup.

"The town of Passage West will be en fete on Saturday when rowing will be the dominant harbour sport"

The year after its foundation, the Cork Harbour Rowing Club held its inaugural regatta when its crew rowed a three-mile race in 18 minutes. That record remains unbroken to this day. The crew which set that, so far unbeaten record was: A. Stamers, E. Minehear, P. Power, T. Boland and Charles J. Leahy, the coxswain).
The Middle Harbour Challenge Cup race will recall the setting of that record and it will be interesting to see if it can be beaten.

The town of Passage West will be en fete on Saturday when rowing will be the dominant harbour sport.

Along with the races, there will be shoreside entertainment. This will include a special exhibition in Passage West Maritime Museum adjacent to the quayside about the history of Cork Harbour rowing; a market of locally-produced crafts and goods, a ‘Picnic in the Park’ and the Cobh Animation Team demonstrating clothing worn back in 1859 when the Cork Harbour club was founded.

Passage West Rowing Club women's coastal rowing winners

More on the podcast, listen below

#Rowing: Powerful winds and very choppy water forced the cancellation of the Irish Schools and University Championships at Lough Rinn today.

The early part of the programme went ahead, but after two hours of action, the conditions had deteriorated with no prospect of improvement. Boats were taking on water and some rowers had fallen in.

A decision on the Lough Rinn regatta tomorrow (Sunday) will be made later today. It is likely to go ahead, but may have some alterations to the schedule.

The award for the Afloat Rowers of the Month for March is shared between the women’s pair of Aifric Keogh and Monika Dukarska and the men’s double of Philip Doyle and Ronan Byrne.

Both crews excelled at the Ireland Trial and the National Rowing Centre on the final weekend of March. Keogh and Dukarska, who are a new combination for this season, had a consistently good level of performance through the three-day test.

Doyle, a medical doctor, could only make the final two days. Constraints through injury and time pressure have meant that this crew have not had much time together since they finished ninth at the World Championships in 2018. Yet, they combined wonderfully and raced well.

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. Keep a monthly eye on progress and watch our 2019 champions list grow.