With only two crews racing in this category, both boats will surely be looking to beat as many Division 1 crews as they can.
Shandon BC
While this crew has had its share of early season success, none of those have come from this combination, nor have they raced in eights very much. The standouts for Shandon seem to be Fionn Mowlds and Harry Murphy, who sit in five and six, respectively. Most recently, these two won the Junior 18 pair and came second out of all combinations at Cork Head against mostly senior crews. Another standout might be Daniel Butler, who came second in the LMU23 2000m race at Irish Indoors in February. What will hurt Shandon is their lack of experience in this eight—or in any eight, for that matter. We’ll see on Saturday how they hold up in the fastest division’s biggest boat racing.
Cork BC
Cork have spent more time in eights than Shandon, racing the Head of the River Race in London where they came eighth in the overseas category. However, they have not raced in this particular lineup. At Erne, they finished third out of seven in the intermediate category, with only five of the nine racing this weekend. The same crew racing at Cork came third overall in the eights head. Perhaps the addition of 2024 senior eight champion of Ireland, Ciaran Brady will bring Cork enough speed to compete with the faster boats racing in Division 1.
Prediction
Shandon has some strong crewmembers, but they have not yet shown themselves to be fast in bigger boats. For Cork, the more time spent in eights and the solid results from past regattas, even in a different lineup, indicate that they’ll pull ahead of Shandon and will likely be chasing down—if not also pulling away from—some of the senior crews as well.
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