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Trouble in Irish Rowing?

Niall Kelly and Kieran Cunningham joined Joe Molloy for this week's Sunday Paper Review on Off th...



Trouble in Irish Rowing?
Videos

Trouble in Irish Rowing?

Niall Kelly and Kieran Cunningham joined Joe Molloy for this week's Sunday Paper Review on Off the Ball to look back at the big stories of the week.

While the Martin O'Neill saga occupied most of the headlines - Cunningham steered the conversation in the direction of some discontent in Irish rowing. 

Despite the recent success for the Irish team on the water, there appears to be something brewing underneath the surface. 

"I saw a few lines on this a few weeks ago from Liam Gorman in the Irish Times," he told Joe, adding: "And it's been something I've been looking into but couldn't get anyone on the record. 

"What happened was - it's not the first time there's trouble behind the scenes in Rowing Ireland because people just see the medals and just presume everything is just ok but similar to the situation with boxing - there's been tension over the years.

"And what happened, the core of this is, a guy called Antonio Maurogiovanni was announced as Rowing Ireland's new High Performance Director last year. And, he had a great pedigree, he competed for Italy in two Olympics and had a good track record in coaching but there's been problems in that he was only in the job a few weeks and Ireland were going to the World  Championships - two of the boats were gold medal favourites and another couple were confidently expected to reach a final and then he started suggesting changes. 

"The athletes and the coaches were put out because the World Championships were just a couple of weeks away - their training plans and routines had been honed over 100 hours in the water stretching back months - this is what Denis Walsh writes - and this tension has gone on. 

"They did well at those World Championships but Sean Casey, and he would be the heavyweight rowing coach, and he would coach Sanita Puspure who came fourth in World Championships in September and has competed at the last two Olympics, and he was let go before Christmas.

"And, Sanita tweeted about this that she wasn't happy and I saw her tweet at the time and I didn't think much of it but she's been disciplined for it and effectively hauled over the coals for it."

Cunningham continued: "Apparently there was a meeting yesterday and Paul O'Donovan, who is the rowers rep, and they're trying to resolve these things but I just wonder how this is going to pan out."

The full discussion can be heard here:

Trouble in Irish Rowing?

00:00:00 / 00:00:00

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