Double delight for Three Castles at championships
THREE Castles Rowing Club in Blessington won the junior mens quadruple and double sculls at the national rowing championships held at Innscarra Lake at the weekend.
In a thrilling final at 7am on Sunday, Carlow made the early move in the quadruple scull final from the blocks and had a one length lead over Three Castles and Shandon at the halfway point.
Shandon made a move and opened up half a length over Clonmel and Three Castles at the 1500 metre mark.
Then Three Castle brought the stroke rate up to 40 and came through to win with only 2 seconds separating the first three crews.
Great excitement for everyone as it was the clubs first junior championship since the club was founded in the 2011.
In the double sculls Rory and Oisin and club-mates Tadgh Mc Knight and David Gilheany cruised into the final in a big entry of 30 crews.
In the final Castleconnel got away to a fast start and had two lengths over Three Castles in second at the 1500 metres mark.
Again Oisin and Rory put in a massive push and came through just in time to win by a second from Castleconnel and Clonmel third. Tadgh and David came in 6th, impressive results from the four lads.
In the U-16 singles final Aaron Keogh and Luke Flynn came 2nd and 3rd in the final which was won by Jack Dorney from Shandon.
This was a great achievement by Aaron and Luke as 44 scullers had taken part. Emily Irwin came fourth in her final of the U-15 singles.
The U-14 boys quad had an excellent race in their final of the quad sculls on Friday.
The crew of cox Dylan Woods, Daniel Devaney, Rob Gilheany, Robert Collins and Eoin McLoughlin came second in their final which was won by St Joseph’s from Galway.
In the U-16 quad semi-final the crew of cox Blaithin Clune, Jonathan Grace, Tiarnan McKnight Caolan Higgins and Dara O’Brien found conditions hard and didn’t get through to the final,
A great weekend for Three Castles in Cork, coming home with two national titles.
Oisin, Rory and Tadgh will be part of the National junior squad for the Home Countries team which will be held in Scotland next weekend.
A junior Irish team of scullers will train in Blessington this weekend to prepare for the event.