Team Ireland had a successful weekend at the Home International Regatta in the London Docklands. Hosted by England, the one day event ran from 9am Saturday morning until 4pm that evening. In a new format of the event, all crews raced the 2000m course in the morning and then the quads and eights raced a 500m sprint to finish up the day.
The day started off well, with a medal for Lachlan Crooks (Neptune) for JM1x B in just the second race of the day. An hour later, the Senior Men’s 2x of Rory O’Neill (ULRC) and Tom Kelly (NUIG) brought home another medal for Ireland with a very strong finish. With 500m left, Wales were up on the boys by two seconds. Winding it up for the finish, the Irish crew were able to come through Wales and beat them to the line by just half a second.
The full NUIG BC pair of Eabha Benson and Emma Waters won their race in the W2- with a commanding lead, finishing 20 seconds ahead of the next crew. The Senior Men’s 4- of Jonny Cuddy (Cork BC), Tom Stevens (DUBC), Tagdh McKnight (DUBC) and Michael Cronin (Cork BC) finished ahead of England, winning the gold medal.
In a very exciting ten minutes, Ireland were able to take the win in the JM8+ and W8+, one race after another. In two tight races, the Junior Men finished 1.6 seconds ahead of England, and the Senior Women finished just .6 of a second ahead of England’s W8+.
The JM4+ of Liam Walters (CCBC), Sean O’Neill (CCBC), Alex McWeeney (St Josephs RC), James Murphy (St Josephs RC) and Darragh Cleary (St Josephs RC) rowed through the leading English crew at the 1500m mark, and led through to the finish.
Tough conditions for the 500m sprints led to difficult racing, however the JM4x- were able to keep their heads and finish up the day for Team Ireland on a good note. The quad of Aidan Kearney (SMRC), Lachlan Crooks (Neptune), David Ross-Chu (Shandon BC) and Ethan O’Neill (Muckross RC) had a clear win, finishing ahead of Wales.
A huge thank you to all of the organisers at England Rowing and the volunteers for a great event. Also a big thank you to the Team Manager, Ceara O’Connor and Assistant Team Manager, Derek Bowen, as well as all coaches and umpires who travelled and helped out for the event. We look forward to the Home International Regatta 2023 that will be hosted here in Ireland by Rowing Ireland.
Photos from the event have been uploaded on the Rowing Ireland Facebook, and final results can be found at the link HERE
Irish Wins
- JM1x B
- JM4+
- JM8+
- JM4x- (Sprint)
- M4-
- M2x
- W2-
- W8+
Irish Rankings
- Junior Men: 2nd
- Junior Women: 3rd
- Senior Men: 2nd
- Senior Women 2nd