This year’s renewal of the women’s senior pair will be a thrilling affair as five crews battle it out for top honours at the National Rowing Centre. Last year’s winners, Shannon RC, do not field a crew to defend the title, so a new name will be added to the David Gourley Cup on Saturday afternoon.
Skibbereen RC
The west Cork club needs little to no introduction as the home club to many of Ireland’s Olympic rowers. With Dominic Casey now lead coach for the Irish squad, former Irish lightweight Denise Walsh takes charge of developing the next generation of rowers. Skibbereen’s entry in the pair sees the return of Olympians Aoife Casey and Emily Hegarty to home waters, having competed for University of London this season, which saw the fantastic race at Henley Royal Regatta last week where both women were a part of The Town Challenge Cup four that beat Rowing Australia in their preliminary round before going down to the strong Hollandia A crew in the semifinal. Casey also picked up her first Henley Women’s Regatta title, winning championship pairs with GB U23 Jessie Martin.
University of Galway
Galway fields two crews in this event, with their ‘A’ crew looking the stronger of the two boats on paper. Emma Fagan recently took part in the final U23 selection trials and a good performance this weekend will bode well for U23 European selection. Her crewmate Madison Donnelly is no stranger to the small boats, having had good results last year in winning the senior coxless four and both the intermediate coxed four and eight at the national championships. The ‘B’ crew of University Galway features Avril O’Toole and Isobel O’Byrne. Both women have won several pair’s titles between them, with O’Byrne winning intermediate pairs last year and junior pairs in 2022, whilst O’Toole won the junior pair the following year and finished third behind her crewmate in the intermediate category last year.
University College Dublin
The ever-familiar names of Alison and Sarah Daly will be the saffron and blue’s sole chance of taking the title this year, having finished third in this event last year. The Dalys possibly have the most experience in this boat class out of all the crews, having raced together since they were juniors for Commercial RC, winning bronze in the 2019 edition of the national championships. Since then, they have been key players in UCD’s fours and eights, but in the pair, they will always keep the favourites under pressure.
Trinity College Dublin
Rounding off the field is Trinity’s crew of Adelaide Telzrow and Maria Mezquita Garcia-Poggio. Telzrow makes her return to racing having taken time off last season, whilst Garcia-Poggio looks to continue her championships collection, having won the club coxed four last year. Whilst both women have raced relatively little this season, they will have been fine-tuning their skills and race tactics under former Cambridge rower and three-time Boat Race winner Caoimhe Dempsey.
Prediction
All five crews come from strong sweep programmes, but it is the Skibbereen crew who will be the ones to beat. Expect the Dalys of UCD to push them all the way and keep an eye on the University of Galway crews who could potentially spring a surprise for the minor placings.
