Medal joy for St Pat’s rowers
ROWING
IT was an extremely leg weary and tired, but very satisfied, group of St. Pat’s rowers which returned from the National Indoor Rowing Championships held in the University of Limerick on Saturday last.
With a 5 a.m. start and a very long drive, it was a very gruelling day’s work.
First into the fray for St. Pat’s was young Cormac Short, who was competing in both the 1000m and 500m events.
With over 60 rowers in each of his categories, it was a daunting prospect for Cormac to undertake.
Cormac has trained extremely hard since the Provincial Championships in November and was rewarded with two outstanding races, finishing 4th in both, only missing out on a bronze medal by a second in the 500m.
Cormac was coached on the day by his Dad, the well-known Clan na Gael and Louth footballer, Frank, warm congratulations to Cormac and Frank on the rowing result.
Next up was local Crossmaglen man Tony Byrne and Blackrock native Ronan Greene in the 2000m.
Both Tony and Ronan have only joined St. Pat’s recently and so were not expecting too much from their races. Ronan rowed a very strong race and finished 5th, with an exceptional time, breaking the 7-minute barrier.
Tony also rowed a brilliant race, finishing just outside the medals. Tony also raced in the 1000m, and with a brilliant performance and a really strong finish won a fantastic bronze medal. Toy and Ronan are well committed to rowing and will improved a lot over the course of the coming year’s training, to be set to do a lot of damage in next year’s championships.
Patrick McEntegart also competed in the 2000m and rowed a very strong race, finishing in an excellent time, just outside the medal positions.
Young Crossmaglen man Shane McEntegart was next up, with two races to compete in, the 500m and the 1000m.
Shane’s races featured some of the best rowers in Ireland, with World Champions, Olympic rowers and so it was going to be an extremely difficult job to make an impact in his races.
Undaunted by all the big names competing, Shane proceeded to a fantastic bronze medal in the 1000m and went one better by taking the silver in the 500m, just missing the gold by .3 pf a second – an absolutely wonderful performance.
Young Crossmaglen woman, Ciara Conway was next onto the rowing machine and was hoping for a good performance. Ciara who is a multiple medal winner at provincial and national level in Ireland and also in Scotland, has had her training badly disrupted
Ciara Conway of St Pat’s takes silver at the Irish Indoor Rowing Championships in Limerick.
by a recent illness. Not deterred by this, Ciara proceeded to row a season’s best 2000m in a brilliant 7.53 to secure the silver medal.
The last St. Pat’s rower to join the battle for medals was the indomitable Oliver Short.
Oliver is the most successful rower from the St. Pat’s club, with a stack of gold medals from Irish nationals and provincials as well as Scottish national Championships.
Oliver’s latest exploits led him to the European Rowing Championships in Prague earlier this month, were he took two silver medals.
Oliver has had a fairly serious
back problem since returning from Prague and so was very uneasy approaching the Championships.
Oliver forever the glutton for punishment, entered all three distances availability to him – the 500m, the 1000m and the 2000m.
First up was the 1000m and Oliver, defying the pain, rowed a brilliant race, coming through the high-class field from 5th to joint 1st place with a massive sprint finish and a gold medal.
Next for Oliver after a shot rest, was the 2000m and here he again showed his mettle by dominating the race to take gold medal num
ber two in a great season’s best time of 6.55.
Last up for Oliver was the sprint distance of 500m, and here a bunch finish with four rowers finishing within one second of each other, Oliver took a hard-earned bronze medal, beaten by a mere .2 of a second for gold.
This was a fantastically successful day for the small St. Pat’s crew, winning two golds, two silver and three bronze medals.
The crew were ably assisted by Coach Hugh Mór Conway and Mairead Short, who was on hand to take the photographs.