BANTRY Rowing Club greatly enjoyed the first regatta of the 2025 season at the National Rowing Centre in Farran Woods which was held on April 12th and 13th. The event was excellently run and hosted by Skibbereen Rowing Club.
The weekend saw over 750 crews slug it out in more than 200 races ranging from 1,000m for those U14, to 1,500m for U15s and 2,000m for everyone else.
Once the dense fog cleared on Saturday morning, battle kicked off with the boys J14 double sculls. Bantry’s Cian Hennessy and Aidan O’Mahony secured an impressive win and bagged the first medals of the weekend.
Competition throughout the weekend was as fierce as it was painful for all the athletes. Rowing isn’t for the faint-hearted, and the young club members proved, as they have many times in the past, that faint-hearted is a category found well outside their locality. Ella Cronin lined up for the J14 girls single scull race. After a tricky start, Ella settled well and got to work. Feeling the burn and fighting race day nerves, the final 250m dawned and Ella stepped up. Coming from third place, she grabbed second and with only meters to go, and amid rapturous screams from the sidelines, pipped her Skibbereen rival on the line for the win.
The final win of the weekend came in the boys J15 quad. Alex O’Donovan, Cian Hennessy, Aidan O’Mahony and Conor Collins with their experienced coxswain India Spillane simply ate up the course - no knife, no fork, no napkin, just straight up savagery from the umpires gun all the way to the line.
The club is proud of all the athletes who showed real steel in taking on the physical and mental challenge that is modern day rowing.
Everyone is looking forward to the next regatta which will be Bantry Rowing Club’s own event to be held at Reendonegan Lake on Saturday May 3rd.
The races will all be 500m sprints which always make for exciting racing.
Spectators will be very welcome on the day.
