100 rowers from Enniskillen Royal Boat Club travelled to Lagan Head of the River last Saturday to compete in their first race of 2022.
The Club came away with a total of 12 category wins over the 2 races with the rowers making up a total of 22 crews.
In Race 1 the Club had entered 19 crews in 16 different race categories and won 9 of them including a win for the Girls Junior pair, Acorn Cassidy and ERBC girls’ captain Laura Turner. There were also wins for the Mens Junior double of Marcus Davis Kunze and Charlie Smith and the junior pair of Tom Blake, ERBC’S boys’ captain and Tim Murphy.The Men’s Club 1 4+ crew of John O’Kane, Joseph O’Kane, Conor Richardson, Kyle Abraham and cox Frankie Rehill also won in a time of 12.55.6.
There were also great wins for the younger rowers from the Club. The MJ14 4X- Evan Donaghy, Tom Fallis, Lorcan Sreenivasan, Luke Bailey and cox Conor Taylor beat the crew from Bann Rc by almost 2 minutes. The girls J15 4x+ of Kate Huddlestone, Hannah Armstrong, Zara Welsh, Molly Rice and Cox Ruby Hamill overcame crews from Coleraine Grammar School and Methodist College Belfast to win the category.
There were 3 Enniskillen WJ 15 eights entered in that age category and it was great to see them encouraging each other down the course to the finish line at Belfast Rowing Club. In the Men’s Junior 15 eight category Enniskillen crew of Harley Sheppard, Callum Noble Charlie Lynn, Jacob Woods, Joshua Inhat, Bruno Maguire Favro, Joe Murphy, Cillian Donaghy and cox Cameron Bell overcame the crew from Methodist College to take the win by almost 4 minutes. There was also a win in the MJ15 2X for Ethan Rusk and Christian Timoney.
ERBC’S boys Junior Eight were the overall winners of Race 2 completing the 4200m in a time of 16.13.6 11 seconds ahead of Queens University Senior Mens Four and a composite Men’s Masters crew who took the 2nd and 3rd places. The crew of Tim Murphy, Tom Blake, Marcus Davis Kunze, Oran Harty, John O’Kane, Charlie Smith, Nathan Kelly, Luke Paton and cox Frankie Reihill were delighted with their success.
The girls J16 eight of Eva Johnston, Victoria Breen, Aimee Elliott, Annabelle Kingston, Rhea Cartin McCluskey, Ellen Graham, Erin Trimble, Molly Nixon and cox Sarah Bell had a great win over Bann RC and Coleraine Grammar School to secure their win.
In the boys’ J16 eight the ERBC crew of William Bogle, Andrew Cuthbertson, Matthew Shaw, Hugo McChesney, George Kernaghan, Owen Kelly, Jacob Halliday, Joshua Coalter and cox Katelyn Fee beat both Commercial RC and RBAI to take the win
Thanks to all the coaches and parents who travelled to Belfast on Saturday and helped out with getting the rowers on and off the water. Many thanks to Mr Holland and Gerry Murphy for transporting the boats.
