With little over a month to go to the Irish Rowing Championships, the Metropolitan Regatta, which takes place in Blessington on Saturday 12 June, should provide clear indications on the form crews for championship honours come July.
The Metro regatta, with 350 crews and over 900 athletes competing in over one hundred races, is the fourth Grand League Regatta of the season. To date over a thousand crews have competed in the first three regattas hosted by Skibbereen, Queens and Cork City regattas.
Neptune (Dublin) on home waters have an opportunity to close the gap on Skibbereen for overall points totals. Skibbereen are currently on 372 points with Neptune on 306, just 66 points behind. In the Senior Men’s category St Michael’s from Limerick are leading by 31 points from Commercial, Dublin and will be travelling in force to Leinster.
In the Men’s Senior Eights, two clubs from Connaught and two from Munster compete for the big boat trophy. NUI Galway, Galway Rowing club, and St Michael’s and Muckross will also compete for the blue riband event of the Regatta, the Men’s Fours, against two Dublin clubs, Neptune and Commercial.
The leading Grand League clubs going into the Metro regatta are Skibbereen 372, Neptune 306, St. Michael’s, Limerick 252, Commercial, 232, UCD 222.
St Michaels, Limerick still lead the men's senior category on 133 points, with Commercial on 102 points with Neptune overtaking UCD for 89 points. UCD maintain their lead with 141 points in the women’s senior category ahead of NUI Galway on 101.75 points.
Selection for both men and women for the Home Internationals and the Commonwealth Games will occur in the Division 1 singles sculls and sweep pairs races where up to 70 and 30 crews respectively will be competing for honours.
Note: The Blue Riband is scheduled for 12.30 pm and the Senior Eights for 6.00pm. There will be races throughout the day at five minute intervals.
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