ROWING: The weather defied the forecast and rowers enjoyed calm and dry rowing conditions for the majority of the day at the Muckross Head of the River today. Skibbereen RC and Lee RC shared top spoils on the day with five pennant wins each – heading up a competition with over 380 entries representing 24 clubs. The Skibbereen Men’s Intermediate Eight was fastest home on the day in an impressive time of 09:50 over the course measured at 3.800 metres. The Mens’ Senior Quad was contested by six crews with a tie for first place as Skibbereen crew was matched by the composite of Waterford/Castleconnell/Shandon in a time of 10:10. The Men’s Intermediate Four was won by UCC who also picked up the Men’s Intermediate Pair title. Waterford were victors in the field of 10 entries for the Men’s Intermediate Double.

The accolade of fastest single sculler went to Damien Kelly of Garda Boat Club who the Men’s Intermediate Scull in a time of 12:05.

Clonmel were dominant in the Men’s Novice events, fastest in the Quad, Double and Single Sculls.

At junior level, Shandon Boat Club recorded the fastest junior time as their Junior Men’s Quad secured their win in a time of 10:16. Shandon also took the title in the Men’s Masters Scull.

Shannon, with the advantage in age, took home the Men’s Junior Four pennant while Skibbereen RC impressed to win the Men’s Junior 18 Double.

Waterford Boat Club were winners of the Men’s Junior 18 Single but it was the clubs of Cork who stole a march at Men’s Junior 16 Level. Cork Boat Club won both Junior 16 Eight and Quad in addition to the Junior 15 Quad. Lee RC and Fermoy RC were winners in the Junior 16 Double and Single events respectively. Skibbereen were again on form with the fastest row in the Men’s Junior 15 Double while the show of strength by Lee RC in junior sculling earned the club another victory in the Men’s Junior 15 Scull. The fastest Junior 14 crew was the Shandon Boat Club Quad.

The DULBC Senior Eight was the fastest women's crew in a time of 10:54 and the Trinity ladies also took the Senior Pair pennant. In the Women's Senior Four, just one second was the difference between winners Cork Boat Club and the composite of Shannon/UCD/Killorglin. In the Intemediate Eight, DULBC also secured victory by the smallest of margins with one second over UCC. Amy Bulman of UCC scooped the Senior Single Sculls while O'Neill of Garda BC was the fastest Intermediate Sculler. Garda also flexed their muscle with another win in the Intermediate Double.

The Women's Junior events offered a wealth of competition with 20 scullers contesting the Junior 18 Single and 16 entrants in the Junior 16 Single. A large field of crews contested all categories at Junior 15 and Junior 14 level. Skibbereen stole a march in the Women's Junior Quad while host club Muckross were victors in the Junior Double. Hegarty of Skibbereen was a deserved winner in the Women's Junior 18 Single. Shandon were sole entrants in the Junior 16 Four with three crews.

Clonmel RC were victors in the Women's Junior 16 Double while Lee RC led the way to win the Junior 16 Single. Shandon Boat Club showed the way for junior crews in the big boat, taking the Women's Junior 15 Eight pennant back Leeside.

Castleconnell earned its share of the prizes with wins in both Women\s Junior 15 Quad and Double. Lee's dominance in junior sculling was further advanced with their win in the Women's Junior 15 Single while Lee also struck gold in a large field of Junior 14 Quad entries.

The organisers were extremely pleased with the support received on the day and appreciated the effort of all clubs to move the large entry of crews through the single rolling head with great efficiency.

#ROWING: Ireland’s lightweight double scull of Gary O’Donovan and Shane O’Driscoll finished fifth in their semi-final at the World Under-23 Rowing Championships in Varese in Italy today. The German crew of Moritz Moos and Jason Osborne, who are the defending champions, left the rest of the crews in their wake and won well. O’Donovan and O’Driscoll put the Ukraine behind them by halfway, but could not make it into the top three which would have given them a place in the A Final.

World Under-23 Rowing Championships, Varese, Italy (Selected results; Irish interest)

Men

Four – B Final (Places 7 to 12): 1 Croatia 6:09.17, 2 Belarus 6:10.60

3 China 6:11.76, 4 Serbia 6:14.24, 5 France 6:15.88, 6 Ireland (R Bennett, K Neville, F McQuillan-Tolan, R O’Callaghan) 6:20.33.

Lightweight Double Sculls – Semi-Final One (First Three to A Final; rest to B Final): 1 Germany (M Moos, J Osborne) 6:39.19, 2 Czech Republic (M Slavik, J Simanek) 6:42.83, 3 Italy (F Gherzi, N Forcellini) 6:42.84; 4 United States 6:44.96, 5 Ireland (G O’Donovan, S O’Driscoll) 6:50.83, 6 Ukraine 6:57.17.

Lightweight Single Sculls – Semi-Final One (First Three to A Final; rest to B Final): 1 Turkey (E Kusku) 7:11.73, 2 Ireland (P O’Donovan) 7:11.91, 3 Italy (F Pegoraro) 7:12.30; 4 Netherlands 7:15.25, 5 Germany 7:17.22, 6 Greece 7:29.74.

#ROWING: Enniskillen club Portora bridged a gap back to 1980 when they won the junior men’s eights title at the Irish Rowing Championships at the National Rowing Centre in Cork today. St Joseph’s of Galway, seeking their third successive junior eights crown, fought it out with Portora down the course, but the boys in black and gold kept their heads impressively to pull away at the end.

The Gráinne Mhaol four of Fionnán Tolan, Alan Martin, Cormac Folan and James Wall beat Old Collegians to win the senior fours. The first half of the race was a nip-and-tuck battle, but the Galway crew moved away at 1250 metres to win well.

UCD and NUIG fought it out right to the finish in the women’s intermediate eights, with the Dublin college just shading it. UCD also won the inaugural men’s club eight – by almost eight seconds.

Justin Ryan gave UCC a title when he won the lightweight single sculls from Tim Harnedy of Skibbereen. The west Cork club added to their title roll by winning the junior women’s four.

Clonmel won the women’s novice coxed quadruple sculls from NUIG.

Irish Rowing Championships, National Rowing Centre, Cork (Selected Results, Finals)

Men

Eight – Club: 1 UCD 6:03.79, 2 Skibbereen 6:11.41, 3 Trinity B 6:13.04. Junior: 1 Portora 6:06.24, 2 St Joseph’s 6:10.21, 3 Bann 6:17.78.

Four – Senior: 1 Gráinne Mhaol 6:10.15, 2 Old Collegians 6:14.81.

Four, coxed – Intermediate: 1 NUIG 6:26.37, 2 Carlow 6:29.33, 3 Neptune 6:36.71.

Sculling, Quadruple – Novice, coxed: 1 Queen’s 6:49.52, 2 Clonmel 7:01.83, 3 Kenmare 7:17.56.

Double – Senior: 1 Skibbereen 6:30.22, 2 Three Castles 6:34.96, 3 UCC 6:45.32.

Single – Lightweight: 1 UCC (J Ryan) 7:26.61, 2 Skibbereen (T Harnedy) 7:31.73, 3 UCD (S Toland) 7:39.60.

Junior: 1 St Michael’s (D O’Malley) 7:17.53, 2 Shannon (C Carmody) 7:22.81, 3 Waterford (A Goff) 7:25.24.

Women

Eight – Intermediate: UCD 6:44.30, 2 NUIG 6:44.92, 3 Queen’s 6:55.60.

Four – Senior: 1 NUIG/Cork 6:57.92, 2 Trinity 7:09.18, 3 Skibbereen 7:16.93. Junior Four: 1 Skibbereen 7:18.45, 2 Muckross 7:29.03, 3 Shannon 7:31.07.

Four, coxed – Club: 1 NUIG A 7:25.50, 2 UCC 7:33.87, 3 Skibbereen 7:38.30.

Pair – Intermediate: 1 St Michael’s 7:49.72, 2 Trinity 7:53.27, 3 Shannon 7:53.29.

Sculling,

Quadruple – Novice, coxed: 1 Clonmel 7:47.42, 2 NUIG 8:03.81, 3 Athlunkard 8:48.81.

Double – Junior: 1 Cork 7:26.87, 2 Belfast 7:32.25, 3 Commercial 7:36.33.

#ROWING: Rowing Ireland has announced the crews which will compete at the Under-23 World Rowing Championships in Varese, Italy, from 23rd to 27th July.

Denise Walsh will compete in the lightweight single scull. Walsh, who is 22 years old, competed in the same event last year, finishing sixth. She has been competing more recently in a newly formed lightweight double scull with Claire Lambe. They finished in 5th position in the B final in their first outing two weeks ago at World Cup II in Aiguebelette. Denise Walsh rows for Skibbereen Rowing club and is in her final year of studying Economics and Geography at UCC.

Paul O’Donovan finished in third place in U23 lightweight men’s scull in Linz, Austria in 2013. He comes from a strong family of rowers, with his father, Teddy, involved in Skibbereen rowing Club. Paul rowed himself since the age of seven. In the recent World Cup II regatta in Aiguebelette Paul won the B final.

Paul’s brother Gary will compete in the men’s lightweight double, together with fellow Skibbereen man Shane O’Driscoll. Gary is passionate about the sport. “My father always had an interest in rowing and he would bring myself and Paul to a lot of rowing events before we started rowing, which we enjoyed a lot,” Gary recalled. “When I was 10 years old, he brought me and Paul rowing for the first time. Since then we have never stopped.”

Shane O’Driscoll, who was in Gary’s class in school, started rowing shortly afterwards and they have rowed together since.

The men’s four from Galway will be hoping for a good result. Many of the crew have rowed since they were at junior level. Richie Bennett and Rob O’Callaghan competed in the four at last year’s Under-23 World Championships, where they finished ninth. Fionnán McQuillan-Tolan recently lined out in the Boston College eight at the Eastern Sprint regatta. Tolan started rowing at St Joseph’s College and won three junior Championships with them.

Ireland Under-23 World Championship Team:

Men

Four: Fionnán McQuillan-Tolan (Grainne Mhaol RC), Richard Bennett (NUIG BC), Robert O'Callaghan (NUIG BC), Kevin Neville (NUIG BC). Lightweight Double Scull: Gary O’Donovan (CIT RC), Shane O’Driscoll (Skibbereen RC). Lightweight Single Scull: Paul O’Donovan (UCD).

Women

Lightweight Single Scull: Denise Walsh (Skibbereen RC).

#ROWING: The Trinity men’s senior eight are the Afloat Rowers of the Month for April. The crew won at the Irish Universities’ Championships at the National Rowing Centre in Cork, beating UCD, and they were convincing victors over NUIG/Gráinne Mhaol at the first Grand League regatta of the year, Skibbereen Regatta. Gráinne Mhaol/NUIG, in some combination, have won four of the last five national titles.

In March, Trinity had been beaten by UCD in a stirring battle in the Gannon Cup and they had also been joint winners of the Dublin Head of the River, dead-heating with a composite crew of Commercial, Gráinne Mhaol and Old Collegians.

Rower of the Month Awards: The judging panel is made up of Liam Gorman, rowing correspondent of The Irish Times and David O'Brien, Editor of Afloat magazine. Monthly awards for achievements during the year will appear on afloat.ie and the overall national award will be presented to the person or crew who, in the judges' opinion, achieved the most notable results in, or made the most significant contribution to rowing during 2014. Keep a monthly eye on progress and watch our 2014 champions’ list grow.

#ROWING: A crew has been disqualified from the Skibbereen Regatta. The UCD Club Two women's eight substituted in a senior rower.  When processed after the regatta, this pushed the points total of the crew well beyond the figure allowed for the grade. The UCD crew won the race, but Shandon Boat Club have been granted the win. The grading system involved is new this season, but Rowing Ireland warned those forming crews that "there will be fines imposed for future breaches of the rules". 

#RowingSkibbereenHead: The Skibbereen Head of the River, set for this Saturday at the National Rowing Centre in Cork, has been cancelled. There were predictions of high winds and organizers felt that with an event in which many young rowers would compete it was best to err on the side of caution. Three hundred and thirty crews had entered.

The Rowing Ireland egm, which had been scheduled for the same venue, has also been cancelled.

# ROWING: Paul O’Donovan is the Afloat Rower of the Month for June. The UCD man had a remarkable start to his career as a senior international, beating former world champion Duncan Grant to win their heat of the lightweight single sculls at the World Cup regatta at Dorney Lake. He qualified for the final by taking second place in the semi-final, and while he found it difficult to find his rhythm in the final, the 19-year-old Skibbereen man had already made his mark. He will represent Ireland at the World Under-23 Championships in Linz in Austria later this month.

Rower of the Month awards: The judging panel is made up of Liam Gorman, rowing correspondent of The Irish Times and David O'Brien, Editor of Afloat magazine. Monthly awards for achievements during the year will appear on afloat.ie and the overall national award will be presented to the person or crew who, in the judges' opinion, achieved the most notable results in, or made the most significant contribution to rowing during 2013. Keep a monthly eye on progress and watch our 2013 champions list grow.

# ROWING: SKIBBEREEN REGATTA: Skibbereen’s young stars burned brightly in the second finals session of their own eFlow Grand League regatta the National Rowing Centre in Cork today. A gusting tailwind may have caused the abandonment of junior 14 and junior 15 races, but the Skibbereen quadruple scull of Padraig Murphy, Aodhan Burns, Shane O’Driscoll and Gary O’Donovan mastered the conditions to set a good time of 5 minutes 56.31. O’Driscoll and O’Donovan, who will compete for Ireland at the World Under-23 Championships in three weeks’ time, also won the double impressively.

St Michael’s also continued their good run. They added wins in the women’s four and men’s pair to their earlier win in the women’s eight, and Sinead Jennings was by an impressive margin the fastest women’s single sculler home, though she will not be credited as winner: she had entered as a lightweight but then chose not to weigh in as one.

The women’s pairs title went to Cork Boat Club. The last race of the day, the men’s Division One eights, was won by NUIG’s intermediate crew, though their one rival in the race, UCC, did not finish.

Skibbereen eFlow Grand League Regatta, National Rowing Centre, Cork (Selected Results)

Men

Eight – Division One – A Final: 1 NUIG (inter) 5:52.01, UCC did not finish. Division Two – A Final: 1 UCC (nov) 6:12.96, 2 UCD (nov) 6:15.12, 3 Cork (jun 18B) 6:20.05;

Four, coxed – Divsion One – A Final: 1 UCC (inter) 6:29.66, 2 NUIG (inter) 6:32.9, 3 Trinity (inter) 6:33.60; 4 St Michael’s (jun 18A) 6:45.78. B Final: NUIG (inter) 6:42.18. Division Two – A Final: 1 Athlunkard (jun 18B) 6:54.06, 2 UCC (nov) 6:56.06, 3 NUIG (nov) 6:56.65.

Pair – Division One – A Final: 1 St Michael’s B (K O’Connor, M O’Brien; sen) 6:52.69, 2 St Michael’s C (sen) 6:55.62, 3 Clonmel (jun 18A) 6:55.97. B Final: St Joseph’s (jun 18A) 7:14.02; 4 Commercial (inter) 7:35.29. C Final: Blackrock College (jun 18A) 7:39.55.

Sculling, Quadruple – Division One – A Final: 1 Skibbereen (sen) 5:56.31, 2 Skibbereen (sen) 6:06.99, 3 Carlow (sen) 6:08.43; 4 Lee (jun 18) 6:13.32. B Final: Carlow/Three Castles (sen) 6:27.75. Division Two, coxed – A Final: Cork (jun 16) 6:50.15, 2 Killorglin (jun 16) 7:02.41, 3 UCD (nov) 7:10.71; 5 Shandon (jun 18B) 7:19.98. B Final: Cappoquin (nov) 7:10.77.

Double, Division One – A Final: 1 Skibbereen (S O’Driscoll, G O’Donovan; sen) 6:35.67, 2 Three Castles (sen) 6:40.66, 3 Shandon (jun 18A) 6:51.27; 5 Skibbereen (inter) 6:59.08. B Final: Garda (inter) 6:58.12. C Final: Athlone (jun 18A) 7:08.38. Division Two: Waterford (jun 18B) 7:14.89, 2 Shandon (jun 16) 7:17.91, 3 Lee (jun 18B) 7:24.85. B Final: Skibbereen (jun 16) 7:59.45.

Single – Division One – A Final: 1 Lee Valley (J Keohane, sen) 7:12.18, 2 Three Castles (Grigalius, sen) 7:20.89, 3 Skibbereen (Ryan, jun 18A) 7:21.59; 4 Skibbereen (Burns, u23) 7:22.59; 6 Clonmel (Prendergast, inter) 7:23.44. B Final: Portadown (McKeown, inter) 7:31.83. C Final: 1 Three Castles (Corcoran, inter) 7:42.87; 2 Clonmel (Channon, lwt) 7:45.65. D Final: Skibbereen (Barry, inter) 7:57.57. Division Two – A Final: 1 Castleconnell (E Whittle, jun 16) 7:38.19, 2 Lee (White, jun 18B) 7:40.50, 3 Shandon (Begley, jun 18B) 7:43.82; 5 Univ of Limerick (Koyayashi; nov) 7:39.35. B Final: Waterford (Goff, jun 16) 7:41.25. C Final: Skibbereen (McCarthy, nov) 7:53.80. D Final: UCD (Toland, nov) 8:05.52.

Women

Eights – Division One – A Final: 1 St Michael’s (sen) 6:32.25, 2 UCD (sen) 6:34.32, 3 Skibbereen (sen) 6:38.68. B Final: 1 Cork (jun 18B) 6:51.83, 2 Commercial (inter) 6:52.26. Division Two – A Final: 1 Trinity (nov) 7:04.35, 2 Shannon (nov) 7:16.68, 3 Garda (nov) 7:40.33; 4 Shandon (jun 18B) 7:55.26.

Four, coxed – Division One – A Final: 1 St Michael’s (sen) 7:16.4, 2 UCC (inter) 7:26.04, 3 UCD (inter) 7:37.30.

Four – Division One – A Final: 1 St Michael’s (u23) 7:02.51 UCD 7:07.05, 3 Cork BC (jun 18A) 7:12.39 B Final: Skibbereen (sen) 7:17.44. Division Two – A Final: 1 Shannon (nov) 7:39.91, 2 Trinity (nov) 7:46.61, 3 Commercial (nov) 7:48.44; 4 Shandon (jun 16) 8:22.77.

Pairs – Division One – A Final: 1 Cork (sen) 7:49.94, 2 NUIG (inter) 8:01.08, 3 St Michael’s (jun 18A) 8:24.34. B Final: Trinity (u23) 8:12.81.

Sculling

Quadruple – Division One – A Final: 1 Skibbereen (Jun 18A) 7:01.73, 2 Skibbereen (sen) 7:05.47, 3 St Michael’s (jun 18A) 7:20.57. Division Two (coxed) – A Final: 1 Skibbereen (nov) 7:39.92, 2 Killorglin (jun 16) 7:53.61, 3 St Michael’s (jun 16) 8:07.04.

Double – Division One – A Final: 1 Three Castles (H Walshe, E Moran, sen) 7:13.57, 2 St Michaels (sen) 7:27.81, 3 NUIG (inter) 7:38.38; 4 Castleconnell (jun 18A) 8:02.90. Division Two – A Final: 1 Carlow (jun 18B) 8:04.89, 2 Lee (jun 18B) 8:13.12, 3 Lee (jun 16) 8:17.70. B Final: Graiguenamanagh (jun 18B) 8:29.09. C Final: Tralee (jun 18B) 8:47.99.

Single, Division One – A Final: S Jennings (timing only) 7:50.11; 1 St Michael’s (S Clavin; lwt) 7:59.46, 2 Three Castles (B Quinn; lwt) 8:04.89, 3 Cork (M O’Neill, sen) 8:07.75. B Final: 1 Shandon (Horgan, lwt) 8:17.53, 2 Lee Valley (Corcoran-O’Hare; inter) 8:20.80. C Final: 1 UCC (O’Mahony, inter) 8:30.14; 2 Fermoy (Sohun, jun 18A) 8:31.03. Division Two – A Final: 1 Skibbereen (Hegarty; nov) 8:25.21, 2 St Michael’s (Murphy, jun 16) 8:29.40, 3 Killorglin (Ryan, nov) 8:50.30; 4 Lee (McGrath; jun 18B) 8:57.62. B Final: Cappoquin (Laughlin; jun 16) 9:00.90. C Final: Fermoy (Bouanane; jun 18B) 9:25.66.

# ROWING: John Keohane was the fastest man at the Ireland Trials at National Rowing Centre in Cork today. However, the Lee Valley heavyweight was just nine hundredths of a second ahead of lightweight sculler Paul O’Donovan in the Time Trial. The 19-year-old from Skibbereen was assessed to have a percentage of world’s best time in his grade of 94.8 per cent – albeit with a strong tail wind. The conditions were forecast to deteriorate as the day went on and on-the-water work was done early in the morning.

Time Trial (Selected Results)

Men - Senior/Under-23/Lightweight single sculls and pairs (1900 metres; ranked on per centage of projected world best time for each class). Selected Results.

1 P O’Donovan (lightweight) 6 mins 40.85 (94.8 per cent), 2 G O’Donovan (lwt) 6:50.10 (92.7), 3 J Keohane (heavyweight) 6:40.76 (92.4), S O’Driscoll (lwt) 6:52.87 (92.0), 5 F McQuillan-Tolan/S O’Connor (heavyweight pair) 6:25.33 (91.2), 6 D Neale (hwt) 6:46.49 (91.1), 7 L Prendergast (lwt) 7:04.10 (89.6), 8 J Mitchell/M Wray (hwt pair) 6:35.16 (89.0), 9 A Burns (lwt) 7:07.79 (88.8), 10 A Boreham (hwt) 7:04.84 (87.2).