#ROWING: Defending champions NUIG/Gráinne Mhaol came under severe pressure from Trinity, but held on to win their third successive men’s senior eights title at the Irish Rowing Championships at the National Rowing Centre today.
Trinity eked out a lead of three-quarters of a length by 500 metres and kept the champions at bay until 1800 metres. But the NUIG/Gráinne Mhaol lead was not a comfortable one, as Trinity came back at them. There was just .41 of a second in it at the end.
Cork Boat Club and NUIG teamed up to win the women’s senior eight, while Shane O’Driscoll and Gary O’Donovan teamed up to win the intermediate double sculls. There was an impressive win for Jasmine English in the women’s intermediate single sculls, and Skibbereen won the women’s junior quadruple sculls.
The men’s junior pair saw twins David and Brian Keohane of Presentation hold off a strong challenge from Portora, while NUIG were the fastest crew in the women’s club eight.
Irish Rowing Championships, National Rowing Centre, Cork (Selected Results; Finals)
Men
Eight – Senior: 1 Gráinne Mhaol/NUIG (D Mannion, K Neville, R Bennett, R O’Callaghan, F Tolan, A Martin, C Folan, J Wall; cox: R Cooke) 5:39.51, 2 Trinity 4:39.92, 3 UCD/Old Collegians 5:47.29.
Four – Club: 1 UCD 6:51.22, 2 Cork 6:40.62, 3 Skibbereen A 6:40.91.
Pair – Intermediate: 1 St Michael’s 6:49.21, 2 Carlow B 6:49.99, 3 Commercial 6:55.92. Junior: 1 Presentation (D Keohane, B Keohane) 6:57.14, 2 Portora 7:00.23, 3 Cork BC 7:02.05.
Sculling,
Double – Intermediate: 1 Skibbereen (S O’Driscoll, G O’Donvan) 6:25.84, 2 Shannon 6:39.93, 3 Queen’s 6:44.48. Junior: 1 St Michael’s (P O’Connor, D O’Malley) 6:38.32, 2 Waterford 6:39.34, 3 Shandon A 6:47.81.
Single – Senior: 1 Lee Valley (J Keohane) 6:56.48, 2 UCD (P O’Donovan) 6:58.36, 3 Three Castles (E Grigalius) 6:59.10.
Women
Eight – Senior: 1 NUIG/Cork BC (A Wickham, C Hurst, M O’Neill, L Hamel, E Tormey, F Judge, A Keogh, B O’Brien; cox: S Kelly) 6:29.49, 2 Trinity 6:35.66, 3 UCD 6:36.66. Club: 1 NUIG 6:38.62, 2 Portora6:39.86, 3 Queen’s 6:45.51.
Four, coxed – Intermediate: 1 St Michael’s 7:10.71, 2 Skibbereen 7:16.53, 3 Commercial 7:19.38.
Pair – Junior: 1 Cork Boat Club (D Forde, O Forde) 7:42.57, 2 Muckross 8:02.34, 3 Shandon 8:08.22.
Sculling, Quadruple – Junior: 1 Skibbereen 6:58.74, 2 Commercial 6:59.02, 3 Cork 7:08.09.
Single – Senior: 1 Old Collegians (C Lambe) 7:46.66, 2 Commercial (C Jennings) 8:01.90, 3 Commercial (Sarah Dolan) 8:03.35. Intermediate: 1 Belfast BC (J English) 8:00.93, 2 Cork (Desmond) 8:05.73, 3 Killorglin (Foley) 8:08.78.
