Portora Boat Club will travel to Cork this weekend in search of national success as they compete at the Irish National Championships.
This is the blue riband event in the Junior rowing calendar and the one that the rowers will have been training hard for over recent weeks and months.
Last year Portora enjoyed unprecedented success at the championships as they returned home with a best ever haul of eight Irish titles including the Men’s Junior 18 8, J18 4 and J18 2 as well as the Women’s Junior 18 8, Club 8 and Junior 16 8. 
Added to that was titles for the J14 Quad Sculls and an Irish title in the Men’s Masters 1X.
This year the Irish Rowing Championships have their largest ever entry for the event with an entry of 917 crews. 520 of these crews are Championship crews, while a further 397 are entered for non-championship events. There are seven events requiring semi-finals.
52 clubs in total will travel to the National Rowing Centre for the Championships, which take place this weekend, July 15-17. The biggest Championship event is set to be the MC1x, with a total of 42 scullers entered, while 49 entries in the MJ15 1x makes it the largest non-championship event of the weekend.
The Championships are Ireland’s largest annual water sports event and are also the most significant All-Ireland sporting championship to be held annually in Cork. It’s the premier domestic event of the rowing season and promises to be a very exciting weekend of competitive rowing, with spectators from all areas of Ireland coming to enjoy the sporting talent in a lively and enjoyable atmosphere.
The current forecast is that rowing will be able to take place over the weekend but may be challenging at times. Hopefully though that will not deter Portora Boat Club and they will be able to return with more titles as they look to cement their spot as the number one junior club in Ireland.