Limerick Regatta

Apr 26, 2025

2025's Regatta season's good weather continued in O'Briens Bridge, this weekend, where the Limerick Regatta took place under bright sunshine. Although, the Schools' Regatta, scheduled for the following day, had been cancelled earlier that week, this event was able to go ahead, much to the enjoyment of all involved.

At 9am sharp, the Jes was involved in the 1st race of the day, where the J16 Mens Quad crossed the line 6.7 seconds ahead of Neptune in Heat A.

At 11:44 the Womens' J15 coxed quad (Lauren Ward [bow], Grace Faherty, Sophie Ryder, Lola-Mae McCormack [stk], Aoibheann ní Dhónaill [cox]) had an easy win over Athlone and Fermoy, crossing the line 20 seconds ahead. All four girls then swapped straight into the J16 8 , which was scheduled to race in 30 minutes' time. Despite saving their legs on this race, the CIRC women still recorded the fastest time for all WJ15 quads that day.
Their next race was not without drama - a collision between Athlone and Galway crews, inside the starting 30 strokes, caused the umpires to restart the race. CIRC's crew (Líadán Heffernan [bow], Lola-Mae McCormack, Izzy Howley, Grace Faherty, Aoibhinn Kelly, Molly Frehill, Sophie Ryder, Lauren Ward [stk], and Elisa Jaime-Stapleton [cox]) began pulling ahead from early in the race, eventually finishing over a minute ahead of Cork to take the win.
The race timetable was not kind to some of this crew - they carried the 8 back to the CIRC tent and immediately, 4 of them needed to team up with Aoibheann Ní Dhónaill, the cox from their first race, for their J16 Coxed Quad heat. This was the 3rd back-to-back race for 3 of the crew (Sophie Ryder [stk], Lauren Ward [bow], and Grace Faherty [2]) and the 2nd back-to-back race for Aoibhinn Kelly (3). Approximately 45 minutes later, an exhausted CIRC crew, crossed the line 15.6 seconds behind Waterford, who went on to win the final.
Another CIRC WJ16 4x , crewed by Líadán Heffernan (bow), Izzy Howley, Molly Frehill, Maeve Guckian, and Elisa Jaime-Stapleton (cox), was similarly unlucky, finishing 7.8 seconds behind Carrick-on-Shannon A, in their heat.

CIRCs Junior 15 men mirrored the accomplishments of the club's J15 Women. First the J15 coxed quad (Matthew McGuire, Toran Tighe, Sam Mangan, Jamie Thornton, Emma Tannian [cox]) won their straight final by 7.7 seconds. Later in the day, the MJ16 8 , crewed by Leon Hume, Matthew McGuire, Oisín Mannion, Toran Tighe, Aidan Clarke, Eoghan O'Connell, and Kenneth Little, won their final by 5.2 seconds.

The Mens J14 coxed quad (names to follow) also did the club proud, finishing exactly 16 seconds ahead of Castleconnel to win their straight final.

In an action packed day of racing, there were some near misses for some Jes Men's crews:
The MJ15 8 final saw the CIRC crew cross the line only 2.3 seconds behind the winners (Shannon), over 20 seconds ahead of the next crew, Castleconnell.
The MJ18 8 final finished with CIRC crossing the line in 2nd place, 5.9 seconds behind Castleconnell.
And, in an incredibly tight race, the Mens J18 4 came home 4.6 seconds behind the winners (Castleconnell) to take 3rd place.