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Rowing in Islandbridge, Dublin

March 2010

Irish Blind Sports have been contacted by Clare Cox, who is a coach at Neptune Rowing Club, Islandbridge, Dublin, with a view to recruiting some young people with a visual impairment for her rowing club crews. She is also involved with the national junior team as team manager for the 2010 European Junior Championships.

She is currently coaching a group of 12 girls, aged 15-18 and is very interested in getting some visually impaired girls involved in rowing. She believes that rowing is a sport in which visually impaired youth could do well and could compete to a high standard if they wished to do so, both in able bodied and in adaptive rowing events. She believes that greater success will come for Irish Adaptive Rowing crews if potential athletes can be identified at an early age in order to introduce them and to get them training as part of a club crew, such as ours in Neptune Rowing Club.

Adaptive rowing for athletes with various disabilities (including visual impairment) is becoming more popular in Ireland with crews starting to compete internationally and aiming for Paralympic qualification. Visually impaired rowers currently take part in crewed boats for Adaptive/Paralympic competition. Adaptive Rowing is currently integrated fully into the activities of the Irish Rowing Union.

In the past there has been a very successful visually-impaired rower, Mark Pollock, who competed both nationally and internationally in able bodied mainstream events. This has indicated to Clare that one or two girls could easily be incorporated successfully into the group of girls that I am coaching at present out at Islandbridge.

Clare Cox can be contacted at clare.cox@gmail.com or by contacting the IBS office (01 2020118) or info@ibsports.ie where her phone details can be provided

Adaptive rowing in Ireland is based in Castleconnell on the river Shannon near Limerick. Joe Cunningham, who is the team manager, can be contacted on adaptive@iaru.ie and www.castleconnellbc.ie

Indoor Rowing (on rowing machines used for training) has been included in this years May Games Programme and is open to all entrants of all ages. A timed race over 500m is set to be run off with Junior, adult and masters races in the programme. Feel free to come along and try! Shane Ryan, from Limerick, recently won a world Championship Medal in Boston in an indoor Rowing competition