ROWING Ireland's Single sculler Casey up to the challenge at World Rowing Championships in Poland

Ireland's Seلn Casey has been training hard this week ahead of the first heat in the single sculls at the World Rowing Championships which takes place in Poznan, Poland this Sunday.

The Kerryman's form has definitely improved since the World Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland where he finished ninth but he will face strong competition from medal favourites Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand, Norway's Olympic champion Olaf Tuft and Britain's Alan Campbell.

Irish coach, Adrian Cassidy said today, "Sean is very focused, is training hard and his form has definitely improved but Sunday's heat will give us a clearer indication of how well he has improved."

Should Casey qualify through the heats on Sunday, he will compete in the quarter-finals on Tuesday. Cassidy said that the target will be to reach the A/B semi-finals on Thursday with the A and B finals taking place the following Saturday.

Ireland is also represented at Poznan in the adaptive crew category. The legs, trunk and arms mixed coxed four took a bronze medal at their first attempt at the World Cup in Munich in June.. There are three World Cup competitions throughout the international rowing year with the pinnacle of the season being the World Championships.

In Poznan, the adaptive rowing team will compete in two categories, the TA2X, trunk and arms double scull, which is crewed by Karen Cromie from Belfast Rowing Club and Vincent Culhane from Castelconnell Boat Club. Karen, representing Ireland for the first time, finished fifth in the same event at the Beijing games rowing for Britain, while her rowing partner,Vinny Culhane is an ex- rugby player who played with London Irish before suffering a spinal injury.

Competing in the LTA4+, a coxed four event are Shane Ryan, Kevin DuToit, Sarah Caffrey, and Emer Patten, coxed by Amy Judge. Coach James Mangan says, "Our goal is to reach the A final which is the top six and take it from there".

For updates on the championships visit: http://www.worldrowing.com/display/modules/news/dspNews.php?newid=324692
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