Fantastic four to race in an eight!

BY KIERAN McCARTHY

SKIBBEREEN Rowing Club's quest to land ‘the big pot', the men's senior eight, at this weekend's Irish Rowing Championships also reunites four best friends in the one boat.

Childhood friends and best buddies, Diarmuid O'Driscoll, Gary and Paul O'Donovan and Shane O'Driscoll will all line out in the eight alongside Kenneth McCarthy, Mark O'Donovan, Gearoid Murphy and James Lupton.

Diarmuid, Gary, Paul and Shane regularly raced together in a quad in the past, and now with Diarmuid having returned to rowing it gives them a chance to compete together once more, as Skibbereen RC targets the men's national title that has eluded them in the past.

While Skibbereen is the most successful rowing club in the country it has never won the men's senior eight, viewed as the big one. 

But the combination of Olympic medalists, European champions and experienced oarsman could change all that this Sunday.

Interestingly, Skibbereen RC did win the junior men's eight for three years in a row, 1997-99, with Kenneth McCarthy the only surviving member of that crew in action this weekend.