The 2023 season has official come to a close and looking back it’s been another exciting year for our club. This year saw us host our first national regatta and seen us get our first international junior medal.
The year started with the Donegal Sports Awards. The club won the International Recognition award for their achievements at the World and European Championships the October previous. Patrick Boomer won Rower of the year on the night for the 4th time. This brings the total Donegal sports awards for the club up to a total of 6. The club also held our annual Dinner dance in the highland hotel in March. Both these occasions provided an excellent opportunity to reflect on the previous year and gain excitement for the season to come.
The club had plenty of success in the flatwater scene this year. The season started early in February when we travelled to our neighbours in Sligo for their head of the river. We came back with three category wins. We then travelled to Lough Rynn and Galway rowing club regattas which both proved successful for the club. Next up was Athlone were we came home with another gold before finishing our flatwater season on a high in Carrick by winning 5 golds.
As always our coastal season was immensely successful with the athletes traveling all around the country and abroad to demonstrate their skill. Olderfleet regatta in Antrim started the season off on a high with 3 gold and a silver, we then travelled to cork. This was a big weekend as in was the Portmagee El nino regatta on the Saturday and then the beach sprint qualifiers on the Sunday. Saturday went well with the club coming home with 6 gold, 5 silver, 5 bronze . Sunday however was the highlight of the weekend as Micheal found himself in the final of the Junior men’s single and securing himself a place on the Irish team traveling to the Coupe de la Jeunesse in Italy later in the year.
The following weekend clubs travelled to us in Donegal as we hosted the Swift Irish Coastal Championships. This is the first time our club held a national championship and thanks to committee, parents, athletes and sponsors, the event ran smoothly start to finish despite the weather not being on our side. To top off the excellent weekend we also walked away with 2 gold, 5 silver and 1 bronze.
Two weeks later we were back in cork this time for the Swift Irish Coastal Junior championships held by Bantry rowing club. The juniors showed their capabilities this regatta by being able to jump into boats with other clubs and coming home with 2 golds, 1 silver and a bronze.
To finish the season for most of our athletes the club went back to its roots of fixed seat coastal boats it the form of traditional Donegal skiffs. We travelled to Inver for the day where we competed in 9 categories winning 7 of them before doing a demonstration of our coastal and riverboats to promote these different styles of rowing.
One man whose season wasn’t finished just yet was Michael O’Boyle. When the rest of our athletes were taking some well-deserved time off, Michael was still training in preparation for the Coupe de la Jeunesse in Donoratico, Italy. Michael and his parents travelled to Italy in October where Michael raced an excellent time trial progressing him onto the side-by-side racing where he reached the B final and won a bronze medal. This is the clubs first international junior medal, and we are immensely proud of his perseverance and dedication to the club and sport.
The club also held multiple fundraisers throughout the year to keep the club running and continue offering these kids the best opportunities we can give them. we held our annual duck race and quiz night among other events and would like to thank everyone that has donated to the club this year. A special thanks to all the local businesses local Councillors and Donegal County Council for all the support and funding you give the club.we could not achieve success without your support
