1K Classic Regatta

Jun 29, 2025

The 1K Classic is the highlight of the year for junior 13, 14m and 15 CIRC Rowers. Known affectionately as 'baby champs', it's their last event of the Regatta season, before the summer holidays. This two-day event took place in Lough Rinn on Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th of June. 37 clubs were in attendance.

The 1K Classic is a relatively new event, created to host every non-championship, 1KM race, that traditionally took place, during the national championships weekend, up until that point. This event typically takes place two weeks before the national championships, and includes all junior 13, 14, 15, and Masters races. Its creation served two purpose - Firstly, it allowed all races to have proper stake boats, rather than relying on rolling starts, from midway down a 2K course. Secondly, it gave some much-needed room to the organisers of the national championships, for scheduling races.

In keeping with tradition, the 1K Classic avoids heats, semi finals, and finals - preferring to run straight finals. Because of this, medals only go to the winners of races. But, for the first time ever, Rowing Ireland introduced an extra dimension to the event - a Club points system, similar to the one we see at the schools championship. 4 points were awarded to clubs for every win, 2 points for every second place achieved, and one point for every third place. Total points were updated for every club, after each race, and the highest-scoring club was awarded the title of 'Victor Ludorum' (winner of the games) by the end of the event.

The Jes made their mark early on the first day of rowing, when in the fifth race of the day, the women's J15 coxed quad (Izzy Howley [bow], Lola-Mae McCormack, Grace Faherty, Sophie Ryder [stk], Aoibhinn Ní Dhónaill [cox]) led from early on, leaving crews from Methodist, Athlone, Clonmel, Eniskillen, and Colaiste na Coiribe behind to win with a comfortable 5-length lead, crossing the line 19 seconds ahead of Methodist (2nd), and 20 seconds ahead of Athlone (3rd).

Unfortunately, despite strong performances, this winning streak did not stick for the remainder of the day, however a number of 3rd places helped the club's points total accumulate: namely the MJ13 & WJ14 Coxed Quads, and a WJ14 Double (exact crew members unknown at this time) as well as the MJ15 Single Scull of Toran Tighe. These results brought CIRC's total points, at the end of the first day, up to 8.



On day two, the Jes were in the very first race of the day, where the women's J14 Oct secured 3rd place for another point. This was followed an hour later by a second place for CIRC's MJ15 quad, crewed by Matthew McGuire (stk), Toran Tighe, Ben O'Donovan, Sam Mangan (stk), and Cian McDonnell Hanly (cox). This tightly fought race saw the CIRC and Skib crews neck and neck for a lot of the race, only for Skibereen to begin inching ahead in the last 300m, to finish a length ahead.
This was soon followed by a second place for the MJ13 Oct (crew members unknown), earning another two points for the club.

It's fair to say that the women's J15 single skulls final, at 10:40 that morning, was Dominated by CIRC. in line six, at the far end of the lake, was Grace Faherty. Grace has produced some outstanding achievements, in indoor rowing, over the past year, breaking the J13-14 World record over 500m in November, beating the J15-16 Irish 500m record in the IIRC, and, most recently, taking 3 seconds off the Irish WJ15-16 2k record, during training. She was eager to show that her talent also extended to on-the-water rowing. On the other side of the lake, in Lane 1, was her crew mate, Sophie Ryder. Sandwiched between these two CIRC rowers were scullers from Clonmel, Skibbereen, Workman's, and Cork.
With these two athletes in the race, CIRC was quietly confident of taking the medal - and our rowers did not disappoint: By the 500 metre mark, Grace had developed a significant lead, prompting the race commentator to say that she was 'in a league of her own'. The only sculler who could keep any way close to her was her fellow CIRC rower. To say that these two rowers dominated the race is to put it mildly - Grace was a blur, crossing the finishing line to take first place, followed by Sophie, 12 seconds later, earning CIRC the maximum 6 points possible. Third place went to a Clonmel rower, who crossed the line a full 33 seconds after that (45 seconds after Grace). This was a phenomenal gap, for a 1K race!

This was immediately followed by another single scull final, where equipment trouble heartbreakingly prevented Izzy Howley from adding to CIRC's points tally. 15 minutes later, Lola-Mae McCormack, secured 2nd place in her single scull final, for another 2 points.
In the afternoon, the Mens J15 double of Matthew McGuire (bow) and Toran Tighe (stk), took second place, losing out by half a length. This was followed by another J15 double (Ben O'Donovan [bow] and Sam Mangan [stk]), who took third place, for another point.
An hour later, Louisa Schofield took 3rd place in a WJ14 single scull final, for another club point, and 30 minutes later, the WJ15 double of Grace Faherty and Sophie Ryder, who were being matched by Neptune, only half a length behind, for most of the race - until they managed to fix some steering problems, that had been plaguing them, and settle into their rhythm for the last 250m, pulling away to win by a length and a half.
Their race was immediately followed by another WJ15 double final, featuring another CIRC crew (Lola-Mae McCormack [bow] and Lauren Ward [stk]). The Jes girls easily won this race with a 4-length lead.

Later in the afternoon, at around 4pm, the CIRC Men's J15 8 (Matthew McGuire, Toran Tighe, Ben O'Donovan, Micheal Cahill, Jamie Duane, Ruairí McHale, Sam Mangan, Cian McDonnell Hanly, and Oisín Mannion [cox]), was up against crews from Athlone, Garda, Galway, Lee, and Muckross. This tightly fought race saw Enniskillen and Jes battling it out at the midpoint but Enniskillen managed to stretch out a lead to take the win, over Jes's 2nd place.
At 5pm, the Jes J13 quad was also racing Enniskillen - and also Bann and Muckross. They took 3rd place, and the final point of the day for Jes, bringing our club total to 35.

Thanks to the excellent performances of our athletes, the club finished in the top 10, in the Victor Ludorum table, ahead of 26 other clubs, Gold medals were taken home by our WJ15 Quad, 2 WJ15 doubles, and by Grace Faherty, for her phenomenal win in the WJ15 single scull. Unfortunately, 5 CIRC crews just missed out on medals, taking 2nd place - but they all did their club proud and we know their day will come!
As usual, the behaviour of the Jes rowers was exemplary, and we thank them for being such excellent ambassadors for our club and a pleasure to work with. For the younger crews, this marks the beginning of their summer break, after what's been a hugely successful year for the club. Some others will get one last outing, at the National Champs, before summer.

Our regular photographer was not able to take photos, this weekend, but we'll gather what photos we can and place them here, soon.