A WAVE OF SUCCESS FOR NEW ROSS BOAT CLUB
MEMBERS of New Ross Boat Club had a very successful outing to the National Rowing Centre in Cork where they competed in the annual Cork Regatta and came home with a large amount of awards.
One of the most prestigious regattas in the country this year’s event attracted a record entry of 850 crews from J14 to Senior level.
The event is the biggest competition of its type outside of the Irish Rowing Championships.
The New Ross crews were illustrious company as other competitors at the event included Irish rowers like the O’Donovan brothers, Denise Walsh and Mark O’Donovan.
A spokesperson for the club commented to this newspaper that in addition to being the last regatta before the National Championships it was also the final part of the trialing process for three New Ross scullers, Laura Brown, Shona Tierney and Luke Sutton. They have been competing all year to secure selection to represent Ireland at up-and-coming Junior International regattas.
The three completed their trialing in impeccable fashion. The first up was Laura Brown competing in the Junior Women’s single scull event.
She was the fastest junior sculler and won the competition outright.
‘ This should almost guarantee her a call up to the Irish squad,’ said the club spokesperson.
Shona Tierney was not too far behind her finishing in the top 10 junior scullers.
The next person to take to the water was lightweight sculler, Luke Sutton. Luke was participating in a really strong competitive division, however, he didn’t let it distract him and finished in a fantastic time securing a top three placing in the lightweight mens’ category.
The J14 rowers then took to the water and all of them put in great performances with Ella O’Hanlon winning her final. The J14 boys didn’t disappoint either with commanding wins for both Sam Furlong and Ronan Gibbon in their respective finals.
The last medals for New Ross were secured on the day by doubles partners Faye Prendergast and Lily O’Keeffe who won the Club 2 2x event beating their nearest rivals Cappoquin.
The second day resulted in more silverware being won for the club with some great performances put in by the rowers.
Luke Sutton dominated the Junior 18b single sculls with a confident win while Lily O’Keefe did likewise to take first place in the club 2 single sculls race.
Ronan Gibbon was narrowly beaten in the J15 1x but did come home in second place which was a great achievement for the young sculler. There were also B final wins for Faye Prendergast (J18 1x) and the Club 2 4+ crew of Jennifer Whiney, Alannah Byrne, Sarah Sutton and Aoife Brennan.
There was more excitement from the doubles partners, Laura Brown and Shona Tierney, who competed in the Jnr18 2x event.
They produced the performance of their lives coming to within one second of their rival doubles crew from Workman’s Rowing Club who will compete at the Junior World Championships in August.
The club was delighted with how all of the members competed and everyone is now looking forward to achieving more success in competitions over the coming months.