BANTRY Rowing Club proudly hosted the 2026 Rowing Ireland Junior Endurance Championships on Sunday September 13.

The pinnacle of the rowing calendar for many young coastal rowing athletes, the event brought 226 crews from over 20 clubs to Bantry Aerodrome, a

venue now synonymous with this style of rowing.

The club has been hosting coastal endurance events on the bay since 2017. In that time, ten events have taken place, year on year. This the second time the junior championships have landed in Bantry Bay, the first ever iteration of this event was hosted by Bantry Rowing Club in 2022.

Clubs from as far off as Mayo, Donegal and Wicklow joined a strong cohort of Cork and Kerry clubs to challenge for 18 national titles. The race course followed the runway at Bantry Aerodrome, allowing spectators a viewing experience like no other as fleets of up to 15 boats covered the approximately 2.5km course carved out ‘between the beaches’ where turns and tactics were as important as straight-line speed.

Wicklow Rowing Club took top honours on the day bringing home seven national titles, followed by Killorglin Rowing Club taking five golds. Medals were handed out to first, second and third place winners from single, double and quad events across three age categories. The diversity of clubs winning medals was spectacular with nearly all clubs in attendance taking home coveted medals of some colour—a great sign of the depth forming across the country for what is still a young discipline within the sport of rowing.

The hard working volunteers within the club were matched by the hard work of its athletes. Two gold medals were kept local. The first final of the day, the men’s junior 14 quad (Conor Collins, Cian Hennessey, Aidan O’Mahony, Alex O’Donovan, and Ronan Hennessey cox) was dominated by the disciplined Bantry Crew, showing spectators and all other clubs that Bantry was not just there to host. The second gold of the day came in the women’s junior 16 double (Ella Cronin and Cara Collins), the largest event of the day requiring qualification through heats just to gain a chance at a medal race. Again the Bantry win was emphatic and a testament to the work of coaches and athletes these past years.

The club boated eleven crews across seven of the eighteen events offered and all athletes represented the club well and fought for contention in their respective races. Notably, all athletes stepped into volunteer roles when not racing on the day.

The 2026 event in Bantry is the largest junior championships to date and one of the largest single day Coastal Endurance events ever held in Ireland. Bantry Rowing Club would like to thank Swift Racing Ireland (main sponsor), all its volunteers, athletes, Bantry Sailing Club for providing safety boats, Sunoco for the use of the barge for safety, Ian Vickery and Gerard O’Donovan for first aid cover, and all clubs who made the day such a success.