Offaly Win Junior 15 Single Scull And Masters Single Scull At Fermoy Sprints
Thursday, 8 July 2010
Offaly Rowing Club Junior 15 quadruple scull.
IN preparation for the July National Championships in two weeks time Offaly Rowing Club men competed in the Fermoy Sprints on Sunday. Racing over 500m, Offaly crews consisted of junior and master single sculls, junior double scull and junior quads. A series of heats were raced with the winner of each heat going through to a final two lane, or occasionally three course lane final. There was a win for Offaly's David McCabe in the masters single scull and Cathal Phelan in the junior 15 single scull.
Offaly Rowing Club competed in a total of five single sculling age categories at Fermoy Sprints. Jamie Adams and James Houlihan competed in the junior 18A single sculls but were unfortunate not to make it out of their heats. John Neale was the only single sculler to compete at junior 16. Entering the last 100m of the race John put on a spurt to catch his opponent, gaining with each and every stroke, but was unable to pull ahead of his opponent and finished in second place.
The junior 15 single scullers were assembled into three groups with Offaly Rowing Club represented by Cathal Phelan in the A group and both Patrick Grogan and Patrick Walsh in the C group. Cathal made it through his heats and took victory in the finals. In the junior 15C category Patrick Walsh put in a good performance but didn't make the finals unlike fellow club mate Patrick Grogan who narrowly missed out on the winning position in the final. The second win of the day came from David McCabe who was racing at masters level. Leading through the middle of the race David had to fight hard to keep ahead of this opponent in the last 50m of the race.
Other crews competing at Fermoy Sprints from Offaly Rowing Club included the junior 18A double scull of Mantas Pukelis and Anthony Gannon, the junior 18A coxed quadruple scull of Mantas Pukelis, Anthony Gannon, Jamie Adams, James Houlihan and cox Conor O' Brien and the junior 15B coxed quadruple scull of James Peters, Cathal Phelan, Patrick Grogan, Patrick Walsh and cox Conor O' Brien.
In their first race in the double scull Mantas Pukelis and Anthony Gannon put in a sterling performance but were beaten in their heats by a strong Carlow crew. In a straight final junior 18A coxed quadruple scull the Offaly men were narrowly beaten by the home team, Fermoy Rowing Club, despite catching a major crab at the start. This brought them to a complete standstill, but they restarted and gave chase, getting back to almost level by the finish. In their first crew outing the mens junior 15B quadruple scull came second in their heat losing out on a place in the finals, after a lengthy wait before the start of the race. With a bit more practice, this crew could put other clubs under serious pressure.
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