In Pictures: Sensational season for Limerick's St Michaels Rowing Club

LIMERICK'S St Michaels Rowing Club have closed out their 2022 season on a high.

The Limerick club won two Irish Junior Championships, seven Silver Medals and a number of rowers selected to compete for Ireland at International level.

To celebrate the success of the 2022 season, St Michael's are hosting an open evening on Tuesday, August 30 at 7pm for members, families and supporters to congratulate all of the squads.

The club is also hosting a Victory Dinner Dance in The Strand Hotel on Saturday October 22, details of which will be on the club's social media.

It's a testament to the hard work the club has put in over the last number of years under the Captaincy of Mike McDonagh and the club's coaches. 

The previous two seasons were heavily affected by Covid with no racing in 2020 and restricted events in 2021. This year there was a slow return to the normal schedule. St Michael's competed in a number time trial 'Head of the Rivers' events over the winter with a number of wins and strong top 3 placements at Erne, Shandon & their own events in O'Briensbridge in October as well as the increasingly popular city event in March. Top of the leaderboard was the club's Men's Junior 18 4x-, who were building on their 3rd place at the Irish Championships in 2021. Also going well were the young girls squad with consistent top three placements, setting both of the Junior 18 squads up for a competitive regatta season. 

The club also had a very special coaching event when two time World Champion and Olympic competitor Sanita Puspure spent a day with our squads in November. She met with all crews to answer questions about her career, training, diet, mental health and race day preparation. Sanita also took to the water coaching the crews and was very impressed by the consistency in rowing technique and fitness throughout the squads. She was very impressed with the club's approach and said she would be watching the season with great anticipation for St Michael's. 

The regatta season, which runs from April to July, saw the club sweep the boards in all age categories for the boys and girls squads. Nine wins at Commercial Regatta, 9 wins at Skibbereen Regatta and 11 wins at Galway Regatta. The pre championship regattas at Lough Rynn and Cork were cancelled due to high winds so the squads didn't get the full line up against their Championship opponents until the Championship Regatta in July. The Squads preparation was boosted by the delivery of new racing boats, funded by the excellent fundraising efforts within the club and their supporters.

This season saw the introduction of a new '1,000 metre Classic' regatta taking place the week before the Championships. This regatta catered for the non Championship events for crews aged 13-15 and Masters but was run at the CHampionship course in Cork to give the crews the full Championship experience. It also allowed for a better Championship Regatta with less racing meaning clubs, rowers and spectators more time to take in the events. St Michael's crews fared very well at the season end for the younger crews with 5 wins including Jack Rafferty MJ15 1x and Cloda Phillips WJ14 1x along with wins in the WJ14 4x+, MJ15 8x+ and MJ14 4x+. 

One week later the club returned for the 3 day Irish Championships Regatta with all eyes on the Men's Junior 18 4x- and the Women's Junior 18 8+. Friday saw the Men's Junior pair of Fionn McDonnell and Cormac Benson leading out of the blocks with a blistering first 200m. The Limerick crew continued to move away from the field and opened up clear water to the nearest crews. They held the lead into the last few hundred metres and despite a big push by St Joseph's of Galway the boys held out to take the Irish Championship.The tone of the regatta had been set and the win was backed up with a Bronze Medal for the Men's Junior 16 4x+ of Jack Redmond, Eoin McGuigan, Cian McGrath, Colm Murphy & James Dolphin and a solid 5th place for the Women's Junior 2- of Ella Paige and Laoise Phillips. Shane Rafferty, crewmate of the pair raced in the Junior 1x event and had the 3rd fastest time out of 41 competitors with the 6 fastest advancing to the final. Shane had a great race to take the Silver Medal in the final, closing out a great days racing for the club.

Day 2 racing saw the boy's racing in their favoured event - the Men's Junior 18 4x-, the event where they picked up most wins during the season. The St Michael's crew contained Fionn and Cormac from the Championship winning pair along with Shane Rafferty and Aidan Kearney and coached by Stuart McDonnell and Eoin Kearney. 20 crews raced in 5 time trial races with again the fastest 6 crews advancing to the final and it was the St Michael's crew who set the pace qualifying with the fastest time of the 40 crews. The final took place later that day with the crew putting to rest their 3rd place finish at the 2021 event. They bolted off the start to open a lead in the first few hundred metres and moved away from the chasing crews in the middle 1,000m. The hard work was done and the 4 St Michaels rowers powered home in the last 500 metres to win by over 3 seconds and to secure the club's 2nd Championship win. The win was very emotional as the boys had also been coached by Shane's dad Eoin Rafferty who unfortunately passed away earlier this year. There were tears equal in celebration and sadness and the entire club couldn't be prouder of Shane and his crew and what better celebration of Eoin's life than by winning the event and dedicating it to him. The boys crew raced in a new 4x boat which is named after Eoin, further cementing his input, effect and love within the crew and club.

Shane continued the hot racing streak with a brilliant 2nd place in the Mens Club 1x, an event for over 18's. He qualified through the timetrail event earlier in the day with the 4th fastest time but raced an amazing race to take 2nd place behind a very experienced Skibbereen sculler. This was a huge achievement for someone as young as Shane. Looking to share the spotlight with his Championship winning brother was Jack Rafferty. Jack had already won the Junior 15 1,000 metre race a week earlier and returned to come up an age grade to complete Junior 16 over the Champion 2,000 meter course. He qualified through the time trial as one of the fastest 6 out of a field of 48 scullers which was a great achievement but also went on to have a flyer of a race to take Silver Medal in the event. 

Additional Silver Medals came the club's way when the Junior Girls 8+ and 4x- raced their hearts out pushing the winning crews right to the line in both finals. Many of the girls Squad are eligible to race junior again next year and will be back with avengence to change Silver to Gold. It's always tough to not come away with the Gold but the club is immensely proud of the girls and their results. The crews consisted of Anna Hayes, Ruby Mullholland, Aisling Hurson, Abbie Cullnane, Rachel Connelly, Ella O'Shea, Laoise Phillips, Ella Paige and cox Siun O'Keefe. The future is bright for these girls.

The boys rounded off the regatta with another Silver medal in the Men's Junior 18 2x- when Shane Rafferty and Cormac Benson pushed Skibbereen all the way to the line.

The boys squad were rewarded for their success with Aidan, Cormac & Fionn selected to row for Ireland at the annual Home International Regatta (Ireland, England, Wales & Scotland competing) taking place in London's docklands. There was a slew of Gold Medals won by Cormac and Fionn in the Men's 8+, Aidan in the Men's 4x- along with Gold Medal wins for former St Michael's rower Chris Kirwan (UL) and Eabha Benson (NUIG & sister of Cormac). There was further international representation as Kieran Kerr was on umpire duty, Ceara O'Connor was Ireland's Team Manager and coach Stuart McDonnell took charge of the Men's Squad. 

Shane Rafferty was selected to race at the Coupe de la Jeunesse in Spain along with Zach Meegan of Athlone Boat Club. Shane trained at the National Rowing Centre in Cork for 2 weeks in preparation for the regatta which took place last week. The Irish duo won back to back Gold Medals at the event with Shane's mother Karen, brother Jack and sister Emily there to support him and celebrate his wins. Dad Eoin would be so proud of his racing and wins. 

The boys will continue their international racing by switching to coastal rowing later this year. Cormac Benson has been selected to compete at the Home International Regatta taking place in St Andrews, Scotland and he also joins crew mates Aidan Kearney and Shane Rafferty who will compete at the Beach Sprints World Championships in Wales.

Further international representation for the club has FISA/World Rowing umpire Kieran Kerr selected for the Beach Sprint World Championships and regatta commentator Brian Richardson working for World Rowing at this year's World Championships in the Czech Republic in September.

Well rowed St Michaels.