All roads lead to the National Rowing Centre in Farran Wood in County Cork for the young rowers of Enniskillen Royal Boat Club this weekend for the 2017 Irish Rowing Championships.

The long journey has been a fruitful one for the Boat Club, formerly known as Portora, as they have enjoyed unprecedented success on the national stage to become the top junior rowing club in Ireland.

This time around the club is sending a record 53 rowers, competing in 48 boats over three days of intense racing.

Heading the medal hunt will undoubtedly be the Boys’ Junior 8 of Rory Farragher (cox) Nathan Timoney, Jack Kennedy, Ross Corrigan, Aaron Johnston, Peter Murphy, Conor McLaughlin-Borlace, Sean O’Hare-Smith and Odhran Donaghy.

The Boat Club are going for a fourth consecutive win in this blue riband event having won for the past three years.

This strong crew has not been beaten domestically this season; however, Commercial and Neptune from Dublin have pushed them hard all season.

Five of the crew will be representing Ireland this summer the eight will split to form a coxed four and pair at this weekend’s championships.

The Coxed Four has been dominant all season while the Championships sees a new combination of Nathan Timoney and Aaron Johnston race for the first time.

They will all be hoping to be among the medals.

The Girls’ Junior 8: Sarah Dolan (cox), Mia-Jayne Elliott, Zoe McCutcheon, Caoimhe Leonard, Jessica Long, Caitlynn Fee, Victoria Wilson, Maeve Donnelly, Miriam Kelly)is a relatively young crew.

However, they have come into form in recent months and can expect a a dog fight with Cork Boat Club. The two crews have not raced yet this season so this weekend will be decisive.

Similar to the boys, the girls will split into a coxless four and the same four has been selected to race at the Home Internationals for Ireland.

The Boy’s Club 8 of Ben Corrigan (cox), Jack McDade, Matthew McBrien, Robbie Mills, Sam Balcombe, Rory Gamble, Michael Stewart, Connor Stewart and Rory Blake has already enjoyed some considerable success this season. The crew won at the Schools’ Head of the River in London and came second at the British School’s Regatta in May.

They will also make the step up to race senior men in the Club Two event. Having pushed the boys’ junior 8 in training all year this crew should be competitive.

There are lots of younger crews that should be very successful also. Although having not raced much this year, the boys junior 16 8 has not seen anyone push them. However, a crew from Shandon who won Cork Regatta last month may prove a difficult unknown.

The Girls’ junior 16 8 face difficult competition from a strong St Michael’s crew from Limerick that bested them by half a boat length at Lough Rynn Regatta in May.

However, the Enniskillen girls have vastly improved in the past month and will be confident of overturning the result.

There are also high hopes for the girls’ junior 15 8 and girls junior 14 quad which has been boosted by a strong recruitment in September.

A Masters rowing team, Portora Boat Club, which formed last year will also be competing this weekend with an eight entered while prolific medallist Gerry Murphy will once again be looking to add to his medal tally in the single sculls.

Rowing in Ireland is enjoying a real boom following recent high level successes such as that of Holly Nixon and the O’Donovan brothers.

It will all come to a head this weekend with the Enniskillen rowers sure to hold their own and look to build on the successes of recent seasons.

The action gets underway at 9.00am at the National Rowing Centre on Sunday and will not conclude until Sunday at 5.30pm.