Enniskillen Royal Boat Club head coach Derek Holland was impressed with a tough weekend of top class rowing at the National Rowing Centre in Cork as the Boys’ J18 8 won the blue riband of junior rowing for a remarkable sixth time in nine years. 

That they did it in thrilling fashion by a quarter of a length from St. Joseph’s, Galway, the very club that defeated them in a photo finish last year, was all the more pleasing but the coach admits that the standard of rowing at the championships continues to rise year on year.

Speaking at the end of a weather interrupted few days, he told The Impartial Reporter:

“Overall, we are happy with our performances, we thought we might have picked up one or two more top end championships but to come away with the Boys’ Junior Eight after a difficult post Covid and the disappointment of last year, makes it very nice to regain that championship.

“I think it’s our sixth championship in nine years which is unheard of in our history.”

The Boys’ J16 8 also struck gold with a narrow win over St. Joseph’s Galway as well but the Girls’ J18 8 and J16 8 both had to settle for silver despite two excellent rows.

Derek added: “I think the girls will be disappointed with their performance in the eight even though they were a close second – again this is a very young crew and we would hope to build on that crew for next year but right now there is a bit of a disappointment regards to the final result but fair play to St. Michael’s, Limerick who learned from the defeat last year and upped their game.”

Derek does see the standard and the competitiveness rising year on year.

“The standard has definitely improved, we raise our game and then the others raise their game so we will have to raise again. Like any sport it goes up every year and we will have to go again. We will have a break, put the boats in the shed for a couple of months and then take a look at next season.”

The head coach though sees a bright future given the young talent within the club.

“We have a lot of good young rowers and we will look to build on this group that we have and we have a big Henley project, so we will sit down and look at that as well,” he said before concluding.

“Overall as a season, it has been very pleasing and one of the highlights would be the Girls’ J14 Octo winning at the British National Schools, that is a very substantial win across the whole of the UK for a group of young girls, so they are all looking forward to moving on and coming up and strengthening a few boats.

“There is much to look forward to after a well deserved rest for all.”