DULBC girls at National Trials

Good luck to sisters Sarah and Sinead Dolan who in are in Newry this weekend at National Trials. The November assessment is the first of a series of trials throughout the year used to select the National squad for summer competitions such as the World Cup regattas, World Championships and this year the London Olympics. Both Sarah and Sinead will be trailing in the lightweight category and will have to row 2km on the erg and 5km in single sculls for this assessment. We wish them the best of luck and will report back on their progress throughout the year.

Ergo Championships 2011

The Rowing Ireland National Indoor Championships were held in the Trinity College Sports Centre on Sunday 13th November. Competitors from around the country (not to mention a number of very large Russians in Olympic kit!) descended on the sports hall to test themselves to the limits on the rowing machine. A number of categories were available to provide every competitor with a suitable level of competition, with the majority of races over 2km and a number of fixed-time races for those in lower school years. The hall buzzed with excitement and nervous anticipation throughout the day and cheers and shouts of encouragement were loud during every race. Each of the 25 ergos used for racing were linked up to the big screen allowing the crowd to see who was in the lead at all times. 

For most rowers, a 2km ergo test is never eagerly anticipated and especially at this time of year, however DULBC stepped up (wo)manfully and put some good numbers on the scoreboard including a number of personal bests. For all members of the club who raced, these scores are a line in the sand and provide a position from which to improve over the course of the year. 

The club was able to enter athletes in a variety of different categories and came away with an impressive tally of 7 gold, 8 silver and 6 bronze medals. Full details on the Results page. All in all another good day's work for DULBC. 

Claire Cooney with her Silver medal for the Women's U23 Open category.

Medals at Indoor Champs

It's medals galore for DULBC as Trinity hosts the Rowing Ireland Indoor Championships today. Full report to follow but medals in the W30-39L, WOpen, WU23Open and WU23L already at the time of writing. Freshers and Open relays to come this afternoon.

A clean sweep for DULBC in the WU23L category (below) left - right: Sinead Dolan, Ruth Morris and Hazel O'Neill collect their medals.

DULBC clean up at Neptune Head

Following from earlier successes in the Dublin Sculling Ladder, yesterday saw some great performances in the first of the national Heads of the River race series. Neptune Head is the first opportunity of the year for clubs to compete in all boat classes along the 3,500m course on Blessington Lake. The event runs as two time trial races allowing athletes to compete in two boat classes in the same event and DULBC took full advantage of this entering eights, fours, quads and a single scull- an unusually broad entry again reflecting the increasing depth of skill in the club.

Single sculler Sinead Dolan, a Senior 8+ and a Novice 8+ took to the water in the first Head and were rewarded with winning pennants for each event. The Senior 8+, missing cox Naomi O'Sullivan due to illness, were extremely grateful for the help of an up and coming young cox from Portora Royal School without whom the boat would not have been able to race, thanks Chloe!

The second Head provided the first racing opportunity for a number of as yet untested small boat crews: a novice 4x+, novice 4+, senior 4x- and senior 4+. Again the senior 4+ relied on the very kind help of guest cox Rory Keogh (Commercial RC) to get them down the course. Two more pennants were added to the day's total from the Novice 4+ and Senior 4+.

A number of small illness and injury worries, to be expected at this time of year, meant a somewhat depleted squad was competing in Blessington yet a haul of 5 pennant including the fastest women's boat of the day certainly looks promising for the season ahead.