BY STEPHEN O’LEARY
Sunshine and the fantastic setting at Blind Strand, Courtmacsherry, attracted huge crowds for the county finals of coastal rowing last Sunday, where the east Cork clubs brought their top crews to compete with the best from the West.
From West Cork, the Rosscarbery club had outstanding results. It was the top club in underage, particularly in the young women categories, where it won three gold in U12, U14 and U16. The club also won three silver and two bronze.
Ring Rowing Club also impressed, winning the mixed senior race as well as the U18 and U21 men’s categories. The club also won silver in the U16 women and junior men races.
Courtmacsherry rowing club’s top result came in the mixed masters category where it won gold. The club’s intermediate women and masters women crews won silver while it also won bronze in three categories. The Galley Flash club will be delighted with its U12 boys and girls crews, who won gold and bronze respectively. Their U21 women won silver while their senior women crew, which tops the South West championship table, had to settle for bronze on Sunday.
For the Kilmacsimon club, its top results were gold in the U14 men and pre-veteran women races. In the two senior races, the club won silver, where in both instances, they had to give way to Passage West crews who won both the senior men and senior women categories.
In fact, the strong performance by the Passage West club was a talking point of the regatta. In total they won seven races to take the award for club of the day. The other stand out club from east Cork was Whitegate who won gold in five categories.
Next up in West Cork is the traditional timber yawl regatta which forms part of the Courtmacsherry festival on Saturday July 30th.
