‘A Final’ qualification at the World Coastal Rowing Championships - Race Report

St. Patrick’s Rowing Club has qualified for the A Finals in the World Coastal Rowing Championships in Portugal. Let’s break it down. From the off St. Patrick’s were in a great position holding 6th place right up to the first marker. Getting around the marker has been cumbersome for all crews throughout this competition. At this point there’s plenty of crashes as boats try to round the marker due to the sheer volume of traffic. 

Unfortunately, St. Patrick’s RC got caught up in a traffic jam and a crash, if it wasn’t for our fast acting Cox Lisa Lemont we would have fallen out of contention. Lisa steered us into clean water and we got away, but we had some making up to do. We fell back into 12th then 11th place but the crew pushed back up into 10th. We were aided by three boats being penalised for false starts that allowed the crew to make the cut.

To make the A Finals is a huge achievement, our crew was up against some full-time current olympic rowers who recently returned from Tokyo. That was the standard of this grouping but it was a race that gave us everything. It gave us drama, proper competition and most of all excitement.  

St. Patrick’s Rowing Club along with Cairndhu Rowing Club progress to the A Final tomorrow. The time of the race is 4:30pm Irish time.

Niall O’Tool & Davinia Anderson qualified for the B Final in the mixed double. They will race again tomorrow, time TBC.

As a club we’re so proud of our club's representation over in Portugal. We are looking forward to tomorrow’s final. Come on the Paddies and come on Ireland! 🇮🇪