News
More Sucesses For Bann Rowing Club.
Lagan Head of the River Saturday 23rd February 2008
Coleraine teams traditionally find it very difficult to get good results “up in Belfast.” At any sport, soccer, rugby, judo, boxing or rowing, Belfast has always been a very hard place to escape from with the shirt still on your back never mind with a victory. This changed somewhat on Saturday as Bann Rowing Club achieved some excellent results at the Lagan “Head of the River” races.
Some 175 crews from 24 Clubs competed. Several great wins included Bann’s rapidly improving J16 eight getting the better, by fourteen seconds, of arch rivals Portora, RBAI, and two crews from Methody in a thrilling finish. This is the first Bann J16 eight in over 25 years to be able to compete, and now beat, the cream of rowing crews from Ulster’s biggest Secondary schools.
In the Seniors event, the new Bann quadruple scull crew, were the fastest from a field of five boats defeating CAI by 26 seconds in the quality race of the day.
Remarkably, two of the Bann rowers in this quad, the Whoriskey brothers, both weigh under 60 kg. This success, coupled with the fabulous performance at lagan three weeks previously, when Bann’s quad was the only Quad scull in over 80 years to be the competition’s fastest outright boat. They defeated the big racing eights along the way, proving the strength in depth currently at Bann.
Bann’s sculling strength, greatly enhanced over the past five years by the Alan Campbell Scull ladder, shone through with the remarkable Peter Chambers beating six rival boats to win the Mens J18 by a massive 84 seconds. This was despite a bad collision with a slower boat, which Peter’s coach Seamus Reynolds estimated cost Peter over 30 seconds.
Both the club’s veteran scullers performed admirably with Geoff. Bones beating seven other single scullers to win the event, 12 seconds ahead of his second placed training partner and Bann stalwart Simon Hamilton.
Bann’s veteran eight, fresh from competing at Carrick on Shannon the previous weekend, showed solid technique to finish a very credible fifth, from a strong international field of eight boats.
The ladies section of the Club had two second places by the closest of margins, only three seconds in both cases. The strong Bann Ladies WJ16 quad just missing out to Portadown , but finished second out of 5 crews, and a similar story from the Ladies WJ15 quad, again just losing to Portadown.
All eight young lady rowers from these two boats, can now look forward to the regatta seson with confidence. In the ladies double sculls WJ18, the very powerfull pairing of Hannah Johnston and Jemma Cupples, just lost by that same tragic three second margin, to a highly fancied Portora double. A very pleasant surprise for the Bann coaches was that in the same category, their new combination of Amy Mitchell and Rosanna Black finished a mere five seconds behind.
All these recent results have certainly caught the attention of the International selectors who have invited a record five Junior 16 rowers from Bann, to their Talent Development Camp. Things are certainly on the “UP” at Bann.
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