Weekend Roundup – University Championships

Last weekend the 2023 University Championships took place in Lough Rynn, Leitrim. University College Dublin walked away as the Overall Championship winners, finishing 10 points ahead of University of Galway.

The morning session kicked off with some exciting races. The first race of the day, the Lightweight Men’s Scull, only saw a second between the two scullers from UL, with Gary O’Donoghue just taking it by a bow ball from Joe Tanner. University of Galway rowers, Éabha Benson and Lauren McCarthy Steele, followed shortly with a huge race in the Women’s Inter Double winning by over 18 seconds.

By the lunchtime break, UCD had made their mark on the points table having won the Men’s Club Eight, Senior Four and Inter Eight. Trinity swept the floor with the Novice Eight’s winning both the Men’s and Women’s categories. The Women’s Club 8+ was the first of the eight laned races, with two crews from University of Galway, three crews from UCD, three crews from Trinity and one crew from UCC going head to head. It was University of Galway that took the lead but UCC never let them get away, finishing just a length behind them.

As the afternoon progressed, the weather conditions got increasingly worse. After a meeting with the coaches during the lunch break, it was decided that all small boats would be cancelled. Racing continued, however, after a crew in the Men’s Club Four got into difficulty, the remainder of the event was called off. Boats were taking on too much water which left it unsafe to continue with any further racing.

Only 17 of the 28 events were completed on the day which left some unclarity when it came to both the Wylie and Bank of Ireland Cups as neither the Men’s or Women’s Senior Eights were raced. UCD had the highest number of points which made them the overall winners of the Championships, followed by University of Galway in second place and UL in third place.

After discussions between the Domestic Events Committee and the Organising Committee the following was decided on the two cups. UCD are the winners of the Wylie Cup as they had won two out of the four Men’s Eights events. Trinity won the Men’s Novice Eight however their Senior Eight was scratched just after lunch. This means that even if there was a rerow, UCD would be the winners regardless.

The Bank of Ireland Cup was a bit more complicated as three different clubs won the Women’s Eights events; Trinity won Novice, University of Galway won Club and UCD won Inter. This meant that any of the five universities in the Senior Eight event could win the Bank of Ireland Cup. Due to this, it has been decided to hold a rematch at Dublin Met Regatta on May 27th. UCD, Trinity, UCC, UL and University of Galway will go head to head with the winner taking home the Bank of Ireland Cup. Definitely a race not to be missed!

All results from the event can be found HERE

Final Points Table