World Record Holder

Nov 16, 2024

Grace Faherty
(J13 - 14) 500m

On Saturday 16th of November, 2024, coach Ultan O'Toole arranged for 14-year-old Grace Faherty, from our 3rd year women's crew, to attempt to break the 500m World Record in the J13 - 14 category. As one of her coaches for her 2023 and 2024 wins in the Irish Indoor Rowing Championships (IIRC), he knew, better than most, her huge potential.

Last February, at the IIRC, Grace's blisteringly fast J14 500m time would have earned her a silver medal in the Women's J18 500m race. The photo, above, shows Grace warming up for that race, with Ultan standing beside her. Grace's time was so close to the Irish record, that Ultan later suggested she attempt to break it. So a few weeks after the IIRC, Grace rowed another 500m, in the club, and improved on her winning time to smash the Irish J14 record.

But Grace's new time was not very far off the current world record - we were beginning to see what a truly exceptional athlete she is!

But then the focus turned to on-the-water rowing and the club had a very successful racing season. At the Schools Championship, Grace and some other 2nd years teamed up with some of our 3rd years to take gold in the WJ16 8 . At the end of the racing season, Grace was in the WJ14 4x crew that seemed to leave Enniskillen standing, in the last 250m of the race, to take gold in the Irish 1k classic. So, by the end of the season, Grace had accumulated Gold medals in Indoor rowing, sweeping, and sculling championships.

After the summer break, Grace's crew, now 3rd years, began training with the club's senior women. And 10 weeks into winter training, Ultan decided it was time for Grace to go for yet another record. So, at the start of Saturday morning's training session, Grace hopped on an erg, surrounded by her crew, with phones out, to record everything for Concept2. And exactly 1 minute, and 31.8 seconds later, Grace was the new world record holder - beating the previous record by 0.1 seconds.

And as though it had just been a regular warm-up, she jumped off the erg and got straight into a boat for morning training!

Ultan sent the video of the achievement to concept2, who verified the record attempt and contacted Grace on Monday 18th, congratulating her and confirming that she was now the world record holder in that category.

So, it's official - CIRC's Grace Flaherty is the fastest J14 rower, over 500m, in the World!

Congratulations Grace! All your coaches, crew, fellow rowers, friends, and everyone involved with the club and school is immensely proud of your incredible achievement.

So what's next for Grace?
Because of darkness and adverse weather conditions, crews can get very little time on the water, over the winter, so Grace will be no stranger to the rowing machine, over the next few months. And the club will compete in the IIRC, early in the new year, where, no doubt, there will be more than CIRC taking an interest in Grace's next 500m race.

We wouldn't be too surprised if Grace managed, before she's 18, to become the fastest ever junior 500m rower in the island of Ireland. Currently, that J17-18 Irish record is held by Acorn Cassidy - a 17-year-old rower from Enniskillen Royal Boat Club. Her J18 Irish record, achieved this year, is 0.2 seconds faster than 14-year-old Grace's record-winning time. Acorn recently accepted a 4-year fully-paid scholarship to Syracuse University, New York - she was scouted, by them, because of her rowing achievements.

Grace is not only fast over short distances - as a 3rd year, she is new to 2k's on the Erg (before this year, the racing distance for her age-group was 1k). Her crew very recently completed their third 2k test, ever, but her times are already very impressive. We will not be surprised if Rowing Ireland takes an interest in her development, over the next few years, potentially leading to periodic invitations to train with the Irish junior squad.

Grace is one of a promising women's crew, who are developing under the capable tutelage of coaches Fiona Kelly, Ken Heffernan, Redmond O'Brien, and Ultan O'Toole - all under the watchful eye of club chairman, Noel Hume, who is himself a talented and experienced coach. We look forward to watching these young rowers grow in strength, skill, confidence, and grace, and seeing what else they will achieve as Jes rowers.

Every club member's spirits, sense of club pride and self-worth (and possibly even ambitions) have been lifted by Grace's amazing achievement - a true testimony to what can be achieved with talent, commitment, support (from coaches, peers, parents, family, school, and the wider community), and a lot of hard work!

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