At around midday on Friday, while many at the National Rowing Centre will be busy eating, napping, or gearing up for their first race, the Senior Men’s Coxless Four event will be setting off. It’s a stacked field this year, both with star power— Olympic-Bronze-medal-winning Daire Lynch will be racing in the blue and saffron of UCD and the names in UCC’s crew are sure to ring a few bells as well—and with crews who have had strong showings throughout the year, including both of Cork’s entries. Many of these crews have lined up against one another already this season; while some of them will be hoping to finally turn the tide in their favour, others will be looking to underscore an already successful season.
University College Cork RC
Starting off strong, UCC’s entry is made up entirely of current and recent high performance athletes, all but one of whom has represented Ireland in World Rowing events this year. Adam Murphy, Andrew Sheehan, and Ronan Byrne have become somewhat of a package deal this year on the World Rowing circuit, racing together in the quad at both the European Championships and World Rowing Cup II. Though they were doubtless unenthused with the results, coming 11th and eighth overall at the respective regattas, I imagine they’ll find more success at a comparatively less competitive regatta such as the Irish National Championships. Though he’s taken a step back from high performance rowing this year, John Kearney, the remaining athlete in this crew, has plenty of success to his name, with three U23 World Rowing medals in his pocket and some strong performances at the World Cups last year. Past successes, even on the biggest stage, don’t win pots, though.
University College Dublin BC
With LA 2028 still a long way off, the UCC athletes above aren’t the only Irish squad members taking the opportunity to vie for pots: Daire Lynch seems to have had the same idea. In addition to an Olympic bronze medal, won last year in Paris, Lynch has four Senior and two U23 World Rowing medals to his name. Though the three remaining athletes in this crew, Fintan Earley, Paul Flood, and Michael Campion, may not have the star power Lynch has, their domestic records are nothing to sniff at. At Cork Regatta last month, the three of them won big, winning both the senior coxless four and senior eight against the very Cork athletes they’ll be racing this weekend. Though Flood and Campion had a disappointing outing at Cork Regatta in their pair, missing out on the A-Final, UCD have proven themselves to be one of the strongest clubs in Ireland in bigger boats. I would not be surprised to see this crew leading, if not ahead of, the pack.
Cork BC ‘A’ & ‘B’
In typical Cork Boat Club fashion, their Senior eight entry has been split into two coxless fours that are somewhat evenly matched, though their ‘A’ crew is likely the stronger crew by a bit. Perhaps the greatest advantage of both of these crews is that they have trained and raced together, whether in pairs, fours, or an eight, all year. At Cork Regatta, Fionnan Tolan (‘A’) and Barry O’Flynn (‘B’) triumphed in the Senior 2-, well ahead of UCD’s Flood and Campion. In the coxless fours at the same regatta, Cork’s crews came second and third, 2.5 and 4.9 seconds off UCD. The crews were similar then, bar one swap, with O’Flynn dropped to ‘B’ and Jon Cuddy taking his slot in the ‘A’ crew. Will the addition of Cuddy be what Tolan, Thomas Earley, and Peter Grogan were missing at Cork? Or will O’Flynn help Michael Cronin, Andy Harrington, and Ciaran Brady shrink the gap between the two Cork crews, and even between themselves and UCD?
Commercial RC
This crew will be licking their wounds from Henley, where they qualified only to be knocked out in the heats of the Wyfold Challenge Cup by Thames ‘B’. They’ll be licking their wounds, but they’ll also have something to prove. Irish rowing is a small world, so when Irish crews go to Henley, everyone knows it and everyone watches, sure because we love rowing as much as anyone else, but also to see if it’s been money well spent or not. People talk and Commercial will no doubt be wanting to shut them up. Whether this crew, made up of Colum Brennan, Mikey Fanning, MacDara Allison, and Tom Stevens is actually capable of that is another question. They didn’t race at Cork Regatta, presumably to prepare for Henley, and at Metropolitan Regatta in May/June came fourth, behind UCD, in the Championship coxless four and 12th in the Champ coxed four. We’ll see if they’ve turned things around enough in the past six weeks to claw their way onto the podium.
Shannon RC
Rounding out the field is a crew racing in a coxless four for what looks to be the first time this season— at a major regatta, anyway. Three of the athletes, Alan Murtagh, Kenny McDonald, and John McDonald, have raced together a few times this season in a Senior eight to middling results: fifth at both Skibbereen (behind Cork) and Cork Regattas (behind UCD and Cork). The remaining crewmember, Fergal Mehigan, seems not to have raced all season; the one time he was entered in an event, his crew did not start. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to imagine a scenario where Shannon will be able to stick with most of the crews listed above.
Prediction
Though the result of this one might seem foreordained, what with the names in UCC’s crew, I wouldn’t put this one past UCD just yet. Though I’m hesitant to make such a prediction, I want to say the latter might win this one by a hair over the former, with Cork ‘A’ a close third. I’d say Cork ‘B’ and Commercial will battle it out for fourth, with Shannon taking up the rear.
