Enniskillen Royal Boat Club had ten crews competing in the National Schools’ Rowing Championships on the Olympic rowing course in Windsor, England.

These championships are open to any school club in the GB and Ireland and this year over 5000 rowers took part. All the heavily funded big schools in England competed.

Extraordinary showing

In an extraordinary showing there were six A finalists and two B finalists - the best ever showing by the club at this event.

Two medals were won in the Girls J14 Octuple and the Boys J18 Four.

The girls won the time trial well but in the final they were headed by Surbiton High School and had to reach deep into their reserves and technical skills to come through and win by half a second in one of the tightest races of the regatta.

These super fit young girls were Grace Collins, Darcy Balfour, Tori Davis, Abbie McCarthy-Magwood, Caitlin Kelly, Emily Black, Natalie Turner, Isabella Wright and cox Abbey Wilson.

The Girls J15 eight won through to the final after an outstanding time trial effort but drew an outside lane in the final.

This was critical as in rowing the potential winners are protected from the elements by a re-draw and the wind was so strong that they couldn’t show their true potential - no matter how hard stroke Zara Welsh and cox Rachel Cathcart tried.

Hard pill to swallow

The bronze medal crew from London were only slightly ahead in the time trial so this was a hard pill to swallow.

A similar fate befell Acorn Cassidy in the Championship single scull where there were 46 entries.

Against all predictions and after only three weeks practicing in that class of boat she reached the final but lane eight was too much despite a huge effort to secure a better lane in the earlier rounds.

The girls J15 and 14 Quad sculls rowed valiantly but found the big hitters too hot to handle in their events.

The boys J15 Eight had high hopes of reaching the final but in the time trial there was only one second difference covering six crews from fourth to tenth and they had to settle for a B final.

But in this race they demolished all the crews to win handsomely and set down a marker for seasons to come.

This crew was stroked by Evan Donaghy and coxed by Jessica Thompson and set a time that would have given them third place in the A final.

The J15 Four, stroked by Christian Timoney and steered competently by Jamie Dunlop, were second in the B final after a tense struggle with the winners Windsor Boys school.

The J16 Four with George Kernoghan driving them on got to the A final after a fine fourth place in the time trial but found lane eight most disadvantageous and had to be satisfied with sixth place.

Similarly the J14 Quad with Cillian Donaghy stroking and cox Oliver McNeary defied the odds in reaching the final and will be happy with beating 33 other crews.

The J18 Boys Championship Four had an extraordinary regatta as they won the time trial and were fastest in the semi finals but in the final they found the pace tough and couldn’t establish a lead but held on to contest a stirring final 300 metres with Hampton school and Aberdeen school only to come up short of the gold medal by 1.80 seconds.

Remarkable effort

This was a remarkable effort by this courageous crew to take the bronze medal in front of a huge partisan crowd. Nathan Kelly, Calum Timoney, Oran Harty, Marcus Davis-Kuntze and cox Katelyn Fee were the crew members.