Cover image by Mark Kelly (thewateredge)
The men’s intermediate eight will be the second men’s eight event of the day of the 2025 Irish University Championships. There are five entries from four different universities for this category.
University of Galway
The University of Galway are fielding two eights in this event. Their A crew has six athletes who will be taking part in the senior edition of this boat class later in the day, meaning this outfit will certainly be of high quality. Entering two crews in this event is likely an attempt to secure as many championship points as possible, with the all-important Centenary Cup up for grabs. These crews, having been training side-by-side with each other all year, also find themselves adjacent to each other in the centre lanes; they will be pushing each other down the regatta straight of the Iniscarra Reservoir.
University College Dublin
This University College Dublin crew will be tested without their Olympian crewmate during this race. The only change from their senior eight lineup is the substitution of Daire Lynch for Conaill Cunningham in the seven-seat. While it is guaranteed that such an absence will be noticed, the seven other members of this crew will be confident in their abilities to secure victory in the intermediate eight category.
University of Limerick (UL)
The University of Limerick are the only crew lining up for the intermediate eight that won’t be racing the senior eight as well and are the only university fielding their full first eight here. UL will line up beside the University of Galway, who they will be used to racing at this stage of the season. UL couldn’t manage to avenge their loss to UG in their match race at Erne Head of the River; they unfortunately crashed into another boat, coming to a standstill and allowing UG to take another victory easily. Given they will now be racing a straight buoyed course, this will be an excellent opportunity for UL to get one up on UG.
Trinity College Dublin
This Trinity crew will be in a low ebb after six of these athletes lost the Gannon Cup by a significant margin. Disappointing races at Neptune and Commercial regattas will not have bolstered their confidence. The Trinity coaches seem to be still experimenting with finding the correct lineup for this crew, with changes between their Gannon Cup crew, the crew that raced Neptune and Commercial regattas and finally, this intermediate university championship crew. The majority of this crew raced last weekend but without success, losing to their own B crew at Neptune and then to a strong Commercial Rowing Club crew the following day. It is hard to imagine that these athletes can pick themselves up from these poor results and face some strong competition in this intermediate championship event.
Prediction
Despite losing their Olympian crewmate, UCD should put on an impressive display to reclaim this intermediate eight event. UG A will be close behind them, within a boat length I suspect. UL should have the strength to hold off the Trinity and UG B boats, respectively.
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