# 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.

# ROWING: Niall Kenny won his repechage to qualify for tomorrow’s semi-finals of the lightweight single sculls at the World University Championships in Kazan in Russia. The 24-year-old Galway man had finished last in a difficult heat earlier, but he led through all four quarters of the semi-final, beating Rusian Momot of the Ukraine into second. Estonia’s Tamor Bakhoff took the third semi-final place.

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

Men

Four – Heat Two (First Two to A Final; rest to Repechage): 1 Netherlands 6:08,18, 2 Germany 6:08.22; 3 Italy 6:16.97, 4 Ireland (E Mullarkey, S O’Connor, S O’Driscoll, T Lynam) 6:24.25.

Lightweight Single Sculls – Heat Two (First Three to A/B Semi-Final; rest to Repechage): 1 Switzerland 7:07.60, 2 Poland 7:08.95, 3 Italy 7:09.48; 4 Ireland (N Kenny) 7:29.71. Repechage (Threee to Semi-Finals; rest to C Final): 1 Ireland (Kenny) 7:48.29, 2 Ukraine 7:50.64, 3 Estonia 8:20.69; 4 Malaysia 8:29.94.

Women

Four – Heat Two (Winner to A Final, rest to Repechage): 1 Russia 6:51.90; 2 Poland 7:04.19, 3 Ireland (A Greene, E Kerrigan, H Lavery, C McIlwaine) 7:17.07.

Lightweight Single Sculls – Heat Two (First Two to A Final, rest to Repechage): 1 Ireland (C Lambe) 7:53.86, 2 New Zealand (L Tester) 7:59.70; 3 Czech Republic 8:02.39, 4 Mexico 8:27.96, 5 Italy 8:40.06.

# ROWING: Thousands of spectators turned out to watch the All-Ireland Coastal Rowing Championships at Broadstrand, Courtmacsherry, Co Cork, over the weekend. Organisers estimated that from the Friday evening until tonight (Sunday), 15,000 had visited the venue.

Cork clubs did particularly well at the Championships. The senior men’s title was won by the Galley Flash club from Ardfield-Rathbarry, and the best adult crew was Myross from Union Hall. The Most Sporting Club was Blackrock. However, Cairndhu from Larne in Co Antrim won the senior women’s title.

The windy weather on Friday evening did not continue through the weekend, with Saturday a particularly good day. There were 41 races run over 12 hours on Saturday, eight on Friday and 23, run over 10 hours, on Sunday.