The 2022 Irish Rowing Championships are set to take place this day next week at the National Rowing Centre. 1,020 athletes from 49 clubs, will race over the three days. The jam packed schedule will have racing from approximately 9am until 4:30pm each day.

Large entries in the J16 will show 49 male scullers and 33 female scullers. Having well over the 18 crew limit, all of the scullers will race their heats as time trials with the top six crews making it into the final. This will be the same for all events that have more than 18 entries.

Athletes will compete against the best in the country with a number of Senior HP athletes, that competed at the Olympics and World Championships, entered in the senior events. The Senior Men’s 2x on Friday includes the doubles from UCC with Paul O’Donovan and Ronan Byrne, and Skibbereen with Fintan McCarthy and Gary O’Donovan. The Olympic LW2x, Margaret Cremen and Aoife Casey will race head to head in the Women’s Senior 1x on Sunday morning. Other notable races include the Men’s and Women’s Senior 8+. Always a highlight of the championships, the Senior eights bring out tough competition, with everyone eager to come home with the highly sought after pot. This year there is a host of National team athletes racing in this event for their clubs, and they are definitely races that shouldn’t be missed.

This year the Championship and Green Blades shop is back and will be located up in the area by the finish hut. Make sure to stop by to pick up your Rowing Ireland merch, and you’ll also be in with a chance to win a €100 Green Blades voucher if you post a photo with it and tag @rowingireland. Also located in this area is the food village. A number of food vendors including burgers, sandwiches, Asian cuisine, pizza, ice cream, cakes, and tea and coffees will be available.

Cork County Council have kindly partially sponsored the water van that will be located down by the beach, and you’ll be able to fill up your water bottles here. There will also be recycling bins located around the NRC so please try your best to recycle your rubbish whenever you can!

A huge thank you to all umpires, volunteers, launch drivers, the regatta committee and all those that have helped in the organisation and set up for the event. The weather is to be good so make sure to pack the sun cream, and best of luck to all those racing!