Enniskillen Royal Boat Club head coach Derek Holland has described the success of the J16 8 at the London Schools’ Head of the River as a “massive, massive” win after the crew headlined a number of top performances from the Boat Club on Thursday last.

Enniskillen Royal Boat Club sent four eights to test itself against England’s top schools in London last Thursday, along the same 6.8km course from Mortlake to Putney that Oxford and Cambridge will do battle on this weekend in the annual university boat race.

As the last crews boated and spectators started to gather by the finish line along Putney Embankment word of a shortened race began to filter out. A strong headwind from the North East resulted in conditions being deemed unsafe for racing in the middle half of the racecourse. Therefore racing was conducted over the first 1,500 meters of the racecourse.

First down for the Boat Club, racing in the top event of the day, the Championship Eights, was the boys’ first eight. Improving on last year’s 14th place they finished seventh overall – the highest ever finish by a junior team from Rowing Ireland. Their time of 5 minutes and 1 second was nearly 12 seconds better than that of domestic rivals St. Joseph’s Galway, giving the club a degree of confidence as regatta season looms.

Only a further five seconds behind St. Joseph’s Galway was the boys’ second eight racing in the Junior 16 First Eights event. Not to be outdone, the crew of Robbie Mills, Jack Kennedy, Jack McDade, Sam Balcombe, Matthew McBrien, Rory Blake, Connor and Michael Stewart, and coxed by Ben Corrigan stormed down the course to win their category by two seconds. In what was an exceptional and aggressive row they illustrated the strength of depth within the club at the moment. They too can look forward to the regatta season with confidence.

On the girl’s side, the girls’ first eight racing in the Girls’ Championship Eights completed the course in 5 minutes and 56 seconds to finish fifth in their category. 35 seconds behind them was the girl’s second eight racing in the Girl’s Junior 16 Championship Eights. They too finished in fifth place.

Irish Trials Cork There was little time to enjoy Enniskillen Royal Boat Club’s success in London as some athletes were only home 12 hours before they were on the road again to Cork for the final round of the Irish Trials on Saturday past.

Having completed an initial 1,900 metre time trial, crews were ranked and arranged into finals with the fastest six boats competing the A-final and the next six boats competing the B-final.

Any sign of a hangover from a week of intense racing dissipated quickly as the boat club continued it’s dominant run of performances. Ross Corrigan and Aaron Johnston topped the junior men’s ranking comfortably while Nathan Timoney and Odhran Donaghy won the B-final. On the girls’ side, Mia-Jayne Elliott and Zoe McCutcheon ranked second with team-mates Caitlynn Fee and Miriam Kelly behind in third. These results keep these athletes in contention to represent Ireland this summer. For the senior members of the club there will be further testing in Cork at Skibbereen Regatta on April 8 and 9 while the junior club travels to Dublin this Saturday for the first regatta of the season – Neptune Regatta.