With exams now out of the way, the men’s and ladies’ squads were back into full training, with focus on the second part of the head season.
Two of our rowers travelled down to Limerick for the Irish Indoor Rowing Championships to compete over 2km on the rowing machine. Philip Doyle clocked an astonishing 6:01 to win the event; he was closely followed by Tiernan Oliver in third with an impressive 6:05. Unfortunately the timing of the Queen’s exam period meant that the rest of the squad was unable to attend. for full results visit http://www.iirc.ie/iirc-2015-results/
Due to adverse weather conditions we were unable to do our whole club post-exam training camp in Enniskillen. The contingency plan was a training camp here in Belfast and it turned out to be a very effective four days of intense training, with big mileage targets met by all squads. The rowers were treated to catering throughout the camp provided by parents and alumni; a big thank you them for their efforts over the four days and for their continued work throughout the year, it is greatly appreciated.
Friday’s training at the camp took an unexpected turn as three of our rowers (Joel Kelly, Jonny Erskine and captain Luke McCann) jumped out of the mens eight to pull a drawing man from the river, saving his life. For the full article on this remarkable story follow this link: http://www.u.tv/News/Students-praised-for-heroic-Lagan-rescue/02c52d5d-0340-4915-91fe-16c019c7480b
Last Saturday the club took to the water to compete in the Lagan HOR. There were two races scheduled for the day, and with the the sun shining the QUBLBC ann QUBBC crews were all set for their first race of 2015.
Race one was over a 2700m course and featured multiple QUBLBC crews including two novice eights, a novice quad, two club fours, a club double and a single scull. All crews performed well and the times are listed below. A particular well done to the novice women for winning their category.
WN 8+ 12:24.6
WC1 4+ 12:53.0
WC1 2x 12:53.8
WC1 4+ 13:03.6
WC1 1x 13:46.8
WN 4x+ 14:25.1
WN 8+ 15:20.9
Race two was a longer 4200m course stretching from the Abercorn Basin to the Queen’s boathouse, and featured two women’s eights and one men’s eight. The first QUBLBC club eight rowed excellently again to pick up the pennant for the women’s club 1 8+ category in an extremely impressive time of 16:00.9 that stands them in good stead against their Irish competition for later in the season. The men’s squad was decimated by illness and as a result the senior 8+ was withdrawn from the race. The club 8+ were disappointed with their performance as they trailed the Trinity crews in the final standings; however this is an inexperienced crew that is improving at an impressive rate and has much to look foreword to this season.
For full results from the day, follow this link http://www.rowingireland.ie/documents/_Lagan%20Head%202015%20-%20Full%20Results.pdf
