Carrick RC's Head of the River back in style after two year absence

Carrick Rowing Club were delighted to be back hosting the annual Head of the Shannon on Saturday December 3. This event has been highly anticipated in the club since it was last held in 2019 due to the pandemic in 2020 and weather conditions in 2021.

Although due to the extremely high water levels on the Shannon the decision was taken to hold the event in the  Rowing Centre in Lough Rynn. The weekend began on Friday evening when the crews and coaches gathered in the club house in Carrick to pack up boats, oars and everything in between before they were brought to Lough Rynn for the next day.

It was an early rise for our rowers on Saturday morning as they made their way to Lough Rynn for 8:30 am to prep for the first race starting at 11am. Carrick Rowing Club had an impressive total of 46 athletes taking to the water along with some previous Carrick rowers representing their colleges and universities!

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The rowers slipped at 9:45am and made their way to the 3km mark to begin the race. Carrick had many J14 men and ladies quads taking part in this race along side the J18 men and ladies quads and scullers. 

The first race had a total of 93 crews racing which meant there was a fantastic standard of rowing on display. Cormac McKiernan did himself and the club proud coming first in the men’s j16 sculling category.

After the first race when the rowers got in off the water they were delighted with the availability of hot drinks and warm soup which the wonderful catering volunteers provided. 

The break didn’t last long though as a lot of Carrick’s crews took to the water once again for the second and final race of the day at 2pm. A total of 88 crews took part in this race!

 This time the J16 mens crew and womens crew took on rowing 8s. This was an exciting moment for the rowers and their coaches as it was time to show off all their hard work learning how to sweep row for the first time this year!

There were also a number of other men and womens crews taking part. The club was very proud to come out with three wins in this race. The first of those crews was the J14s men quad of Sean O’Donnell, Fionn O’Leary, Reuben McCrann and Sean McGreevy coxed by Cillian Carney. 

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Also victorious was the J15 women's quad of Deryn O’Rourke, Hannah Butler, Rylee Carney and Izobelle Murphy coxed by Hugo Butler. Also successful was the J15 mens double crew of Joshua Wickham and Mark Tansey. 

While these crews did the club extremely proud coming out on top Carrick Rowing club are proud of all the hard work each and every rower put in on the day. Winning medals is good, racing is better, loving the sport is best! 

Carrick Rowing Club would like to take this opportunity to thank each and everyone of you involved in helping the day run as smoothly as it did. Days like this wouldn’t be possible without our slip marshals, safety launches, caterers, time keepers, coaches and parents. 

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We would also like to thank every club that travelled near and far to be with us on the day to showcase their wonderful standard of rowing, you all did yourselves and your clubs very proud. 

And last but certainly not least we would like to thank our fantastic rowers and acknowledge their endless hard work. As always you did us so proud.