With Erne Fours Head coming up this weekend, Head of the River season looks to be in full swing! The entries for Junior Women are competitive and exciting, with some competitive times promised.
Looking back to last year’s results, in the coxless four, Castleconnell A took a close victory over Enniskillen by 0.8 of a second. Methodist took the win in the quad, and Coleraine won the junior B quad. Castleconnell was the only entry in the junior B coxless four, and this year there are no crews entered in the event.
Turning to this year’s entries, crews from Enniskillen, Castleconnell, Galway A and B are entered in the coxless four category. Enniskillen’s crew includes Zara Welsh, who was in the boat that won the junior women’s eight at the Irish Championships in July. Abbie Magwood, Hannah Armstrong, and Rhea McCloskey Cartin complete the crew alongside her. The Castleconnell crew is made up of Maeve Kelly, Amy Roberts, Rose Cunningham, and Amy O’Connell. The Galway A crew includes Lily Couturier and Ciara McMorrow, who were part of Galway’s junior 16 winning eight at the Irish Championships. The crew is completed by Carragh Coffey and Laura Carolan. The Galway B crew contains four junior 16 eight winners of Ciara McCallion, Beatrice Kelly, Ciara Stapleton, and Tara Carty. I expect Castleconnell to repeat the win, but the times will be close.
In the coxless quad event, Methodist, Enniskillen and St Michael’s complete the category. The Methodist crew has Sophia Young, who won the Irish Championship sculling triple last July. Young also had an impressive fifth place finish in the double at the Junior World Rowing Championships in Lithuania. Freya Thornton, who was in Methodist’s winning quad also joins Young in the Erne quad. The crew is completed by Anna Sempy and Rebecca Nugent. Enniskillen’s crew is made up of four women’s eight champions in Isabella Wright, Naomi Robinson, Kate Huddleston, and Emily Black. Wright competed in the coxless four at the Junior World Rowing Championships this past summer, with Robinson having competed in the pair at Coupe de la Jeunesse in Austria. The St Michael’s crew has Clóda Phillips, who was Wright’s teammate in the coxless four at the Junior World Championships, with Aida Hehir being Robinson’s teammate at the Coupe. Phillips and Hehir impressively won the pair at the Irish Championships and they were in the coxless four winning crew with Robyn Buckley Marley at the same championships. Clodagh McDonagh joins the crew for the Erne outing. I expect the coxless quad to be a very exciting race but I believe the Methodist crew will take the win.
St Michael’s and Enniskillen also have crews in the junior B quad, with Coleraine Grammar School completing the category. Coleraine will not be looking to relinquish their win from last year, I expect them to hold their title in the junior B quad.
The junior women’s entries look thrilling, with a stellar quality of rowing to be expected from the brilliant standard of international quality of rowers entered.
