CIRC (Jes) Rowing - Event Report

The Jes supporters who travelled to Cork for the weekend of this year's National Championships witnessed exciting races, excellent performances across the board, and well-deserved CIRC podium places as the Jes emphatically demonstrated their strength and talent in the pinnacle regatta of the Irish internal rowing season.

Senior Boys' coaches, John Lawless and Mattie Kelly (pictured above), saw all their planning and coaching efforts pay off when their Junior 8+ took Silver on Friday. On Saturday, their Junior coxed four became national champions and, to top off the weekend, a CIRC Junior Pair also won the national championships on Sunday.

On Friday, the first day of the championships, Tom Maye dominated his J15 single sculls final to win gold.
The Junior 8+ final, that same day, saw a hot competition between CIRC and Enniskillen but CIRC crew of Mark Ward (stroke), Oliver Kelly, Sam Reidy, Thomas Hume, Aaron Burke, Daire Elberse, Tom McGuinness, and Niall Cahalan (bow), couldn't close down the gap in time and crossed the line a length behind the winners to take Silver.

The junior 18 coxed four final, on Saturday, was a thrilling race where the favourites, 'Eniskillen', led by 1-2 seconds for the first half of this 2k race but the Jes crew (Daire Elberse [bow], Aaron Burke [Captain], Thomas Hume, Sam Reidy [Stroke], and Paul Tannian [Cox]), who had led all the way in their heat to qualify for this final, reversed this scenario for the second half. At the 1k mark, the Jes crew overtook Eniskillen to lead by the same margin of 1-2 seconds for the remainder of the race. They crossed the line almost a length ahead, sparking jubilant celebrations - both on the water and on the riverbank, as this was the first time CIRC were national champions, in this particular category, since 1974.

On Sunday, the coxless pair of Sam Reidy (stroke) and Thomas Hume (bow) overtook a very strong pair from Commercial (Dublin) with 300m to go and won by a length to become champions of Ireland. They are the 3rd CIRC pair ever to achieve this - CIRC's previous wins in the MJ2- category were in 2007 and 1999.

Medal Tally

Near Misses

There were a number of very strong performances, over the weekend, that unfortunately didn't achieve medals:
On Friday, our Womens J15 quad came in 2nd in their final.
Having won the J15 single sculls final, on Friday, Tom Maye also entered the much tougher J16 event, on Saturday, where he made the final, improved on his time from the previous day and crossed the line in a very respectable 4th place.
Also on Saturday, the Mens J16 8+ came 3rd in Heat A to qualify for the final, where they unfortunately came in 4th, behind crews from Eniskillen, Castleconnell, and Galway.

International Rowers

Two talented CIRC sweep rowers (Elise Carney-Frazier and Ellen Forde) took part in trials for the Irish Team and succeeded in being selected to represent Ireland in the Homes International Regatta, which takes place in Strathclyde, Scotland, later this month.

CIRC's MJ4+ was the fastest junior coxed 4 in Ireland. CIRC's MJ8+ was the second fastest 8. The cox in both cases, Paul Tannian, was deservedly selected to represent Ireland in the Homes International Regatta.

2 members of these crews (Sam Reidy and Thomas Hume) were also the fastest pair in Ireland. They were also selected to represent Ireland in the Homes Regatta, bringing the total number of CIRC rowers to represent Ireland, this year, to 5.

In recognition of his talent, Rowing Ireland asked CIRC's head coach, John Lawless, to coach the Irish Junior Men Sweep crews for the Homes Regatta.

Congratulations to all and best of luck in the upcoming regatta. It's wonderful to see so many from CIRC involved in international rowing.
Come on Ireland!