Continental Europe was the setting for recent action from numerous Athlone Boat Club members as they represented the club with pride in Munich and Amsterdam.
After a very early morning flight to Munich the Athlone Masters 8 savoured a practice row on the famous Olympic regatta course prior to competition commencing against crews from Germany, France, Great Britain and Old Collegians from Dublin.
With the German crew to the fore, Athlone started promisingly and were in contention for the first half of the race. The English crew then moved into second place leaving Athone and the French crew battling it out for third place. Both crews overlapped as they crossed the finish, the French getting the verdict by a mere two seconds.
The same crew then raced in the Master’s F grade conceding an average of 10 years per man to the other crews from Czech Republic, Britain and Germany. Despite rowing very well the Athlone crew had to concede victory to their younger opposition.
This set them up nicely for their Masters H grade row. Looking forward to a positive outcome disappointment reigned as the race was cancelled due to inclement weather.
Paul Gallen won his inaugural single scull international gold medal in a very close final crossing with less than one second to spare. For most of the Athlone scullers, Niall Coghill, Emmet Cronin, Shane O’ Gorman, Damien Larkin this was their first International Masters Regatta and all had a number of races in single, double and quad boats. They all competed very well and best performers were Niall Coghill and Emmet Cronin who both achieved a fourth placed finish in their single scull races.
Athlone was represented for the first time in the Women’s International Masters by Aisling Flanagan and Edel Larkin who competed in a Quad and Double achieving a fourth placed finish in their Double race.
After many months of training all rowers are very excited to have rowed at this European Championships and discussions have already started to plan and train to compete at this high level at the World Championships in 2024.
International Representation in Amsterdam
Meanwhile, Rian Claffey was a member of the Junior 18 crew selected to represented Ireland at the Coupe De Le Jeunesse in Amsterdam.
Athlone Boat Club coach, Fergus Hannon, was selected by Rowing Ireland to lead this crew at the Coupe, following numerous weeks of endurance training in preparation for this international competition.
On Saturday the Irish Crew were drawn in the first heat against Great Britain, Czech Republic, Italy, Netherlands and Portugal with three crews to qualify to the final. Unfortunately they failed to qualify from their heat, but swiftly turned their attention to the second day of competition.
The Irish crew were paired in the first heat against Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands, France and Spain. Determined to put in a stronger performance than the previous day, Ireland started well settling into a fast rhythm which kept them in contention up to the 1000 metre mark. At that stage they were placed to qualify for a place in the A final but their opponents, Great Britain, Italy and France crossed the line before them, a place in the B final ensuing.
The Irish crew, once again with the support from the bank of the Irish supporters, put in an impressive showing in the B final, achieving a third place finish.
“I was very proud of this young crew’s performance at their first international event. All four are eligible to row at junior level again next year and the experience gained from this year’s event will benefit them immensely when putting themselves forward for selection next year. These are young rowers are ones to keep an eye on over the coming season,” coach, Fergus Hannon, enthused.
