This weekend marks the final Grand League regatta of the Irish rowing circuit, and the last major regatta before National Champs bookends the season in July. A two-day event, Cork Regatta is sure to be exciting as athletes from around the island seek to prove themselves as coaches prepare to make final crew decisions ahead of Champs. With 14 entries from seven clubs, the men’s senior pair is stacked and crews will be scrapping for every centimetre. Hailing from three rowing programmes, here are what I believe to be the top-five crews racing this event.
Cork Boat Club
With three matched crews entered in this event, Cork will be looking to paint the podium brown and white. Last seen at Skibbereen Regatta in April, these six lads all raced in the victorious senior men’s eight at Skibbereen Regatta. In the senior men’s coxless four at the same regatta, Jon Cuddy (Cork A), Fionnan Tolan (Cork B), and Andy Harrington (Cork C) came third, losing out to Michael Cronin and Barry O’Flynn (Cork A and B respectively).
The biggest hint as to who might win out, at least among these three crews, comes again from Skibbereen Regatta, where Harrington and Thomas Earley – Cork C – took home the win in the men’s Division 1 pair, beating none other than Cronin and Cuddy – Cork A. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the C -pair take the Senior and Division 1 win, with Cronin and Cuddy in the mix for second or third. Though Tolan, sitting in the bows of Cork B, has deserved renown to his name due to his time with the Irish High Performance squad, he and his pair partner have yet to race together, something that may well hold them back.
University College Dublin Boat Club (UCD)
Among the crews highlighted here, this UCD pair is only one of two, alongside Cork B, that has not recently raced together. Though this is undoubtedly a disadvantage, especially regarding pairs, Paul Flood and Michael Campion have other things going for them. For one, Flood won this event at Trinity Regatta last month. Though Campion’s Trinity Regatta pair lost in the semi-final, he was victorious in the Senior coxed four, beating Flood and the rest of UCD’s A crew in the final. At the University Championships in April, Flood took home three pots in the senior coxless four, intermediate eight, and intermediate coxed four, though it does not seem that Campion attended this regatta. UCD have their work cut out for them if they want to place in the top-three, especially given they will be up against some strong intermediate crews also racing in Division 1. That being said, a top-five finish is certainly not out of the question, and they may even give UL and one or two of the Cork crews a run for their money.
University of Limerick Rowing Club (UL)
The final highlighted crew has a fair amount of racing under its belt, though not all of it triumphant. Notably, this crew of Adam Grace and Sean O’Neill raced in this category at Skibbereen Regatta and came fourth, losing to both Cork A and C. The day prior, at the Irish University Rowing Championships, Grace and O’Neill managed a podium finish, coming third. Perhaps the strongest endorsement of this crew’s ability comes from their third-place finish in the Open Champ Pair at Metropolitan Regatta in London a few weeks ago, beating out crews from Leander, Thames, and elsewhere. Though this UL pair will likely find themselves somewhere in the top of the field, it will be exciting to see if their experience as a crew will be enough to inch them ahead of crews that have beaten them before.
Prediction
Despite its moniker, it looks as though Cork C might take this one, though they’ll be facing competition from all sides, not least their fellow Cork oarsmen in the A and B crews. Though UL have lost to some of the Cork crews in the past, their strong showing at Metropolitan Regatta indicates they may be on the upswing and certainly should not be left out of podium discussion. Though a strong case can certainly be made for the individuals in the UCD crew, whether these two can race together remains to be seen.
