Portora Boat Club travelled to Portadown regatta on Saturday, April 30, entering four events in the 1,000m competition.

They returned home with three wins, including the prestigious Women’s D eights for crews averaging over 50 years of age, the Men’s single and double sculls, and a second place in the Women’s quadruple sculls.

In the eights, a Belfast/Lagan composite crew beat Neptune to earn a place in the final against the Portora crew in the last race of the day.

Coxed by Caitlin O’Hare and led unflappably by stroke Marcella O’Reilly, the Portora crew took an early lead and pulled away to win by clear water.

Portora women’s Captain Siobhan O’Hare was delighted: “It has been a long road to get to our first regatta since the start of the pandemic. We might have been in an eight on Saturday, but every one of our 17 women rowers have been training equally hard to get us to this victory, and that’s what made the difference.”

Gerry Murphy continued to seal his place as Fermanagh’s top rower, winning two events; the Masters single sculls (against nine other competitors), and the double sculls, in which he partnered an Athlone athlete to win again from five teams.

The women’s quadruple scull won their heat and semi-final, easily beating crews from Dublin and Belfast.

In their final, after waiting an hour in the wind and rain for their opposition to arrive at the start line, they started well but despite a valiant effort couldn’t quite catch the Portadown crew in the last 100 metres of the race.

Next races for Portora will be Belfast sprints at the end of May, and then National Masters Rowing Championships in Nottingham in June.

After the weekend results, hopes for further success are high.