Athlone Boat Club were proudly represented at Erne Head this past weekend with two eights participating at the Northern location.
The men’s club eight featured Zach Meegan (stk ), Luke Hannon, James Heaslip, Rian Claffey, Killian Collier, Edward Cleary, Eoin Kane, Liam Rowan and Aisling Flanagan (Cox ). The conditions for rowing on the day were fantastic with no wind present. Despite the eight only coming together recently for this event, the crew put on a fine display of sweep oarmanship over the 6km race. This was a very competitive event with Neptune’s A eight winning the Club 2 event in an exceptional time of 20:35.0 which incidentally placed them sixth overall. A former oarsman from Athlone, Kevin Molloy, was on the winning Neptune crew. Athlone achieved a fourth position finish in their event in a respectable time of 22:30.8, placing them 23rd out of a field of 55 crews.
The Athlone Masters eight crew rowed an excellent race placing fifth out of nine crews. This was a very exciting day at the Erne Head of River 6km race as five of the named crew were reliving their race of 1970 when they rowed for the Marist college in a Schoolboy eight competition. The crew got off to an excellent start and settled into a good steady controlled pace. After 3km they caught the Old Collegians crew and Padraig Duncan coxed an excellent line that enabled the Athlone crew to move through with confidence. Over the 6km course the Athlone crew were also faster than other crews from Belfast RC, Lady Victoria RC and two Dublin crews. The overall winner was Commercial RC from Dublin which included three ex Athlone rowers, Mick Heavey, Caimin Moloney and Pearse Coyle.
“It was a very historical day of racing given that the vets eight had five rowers from the 1970s crew take to the water on the day. It was one of them proud moments for the club, it is great to see so many of the 1970s crew still putting in the miles on the water,” club captain, Nick Friel, remarked.
