Neptune Headlines 2008

The President, Officers, CEO and Board members of the IARU are sad to report the passing of Walter Stevens, former Olympic team member, IARU Secretary and President, stalwart of Metropolitan Regatta Committee and Neptune Rowing Club. Our sincere condolences to Molly, Ger and Martin. On the closure of Dublin Rowing Club in 1942 “Wally” Stevens joined Neptune Rowing Club. He competed successfully at all levels of rowing for the club . In 1948 He was a member of the Irish Olympic Squad which competed in the Olympic Games in London. In 1953 he was a member of the first Neptune crew to row at Henley. In Neptune he served at every level of administration inc. President 1961,62,63, 82, 83, captain 1955 and 68. Hon. Sec. 1953. He was chairman of Dublin Metropolitan Council for many years and was a member of a group responsible for moving the regatta from Islandbridge to Blessington. He took an active part in the planning of the boathouse there. He was Secretary (1959 – 1972). of the IARU for many years and then President (‘73 – ’76), and was also a member of the Olympic Council of Ireland. While Secretary, he was involved in further getting Ireland on the international scene by taking the Old Collegians four to the European Championships in 1964. During his presidency, Ireland won its first medal with Sean Drea’s silver in 1975. Wally worked for many years in the Brewing Depts. of Guinness Brewery Dublin. He was very fond of the company’s association with the Emerald Star line and had many trips on the River Shannon.

As well as being a valued member of Neptune and a great friend to all who knew him he was highly regarded in the wider Rowing community.
May he rest in peace

Just two representatives from Neptune made the trip across the water for this years Homes held in Cardiff harbour but they did not disappoint. Following on from last season's success by John Forde and Kevin O'Connor in the LM 2- at the Homes in Cork, Patrick Moore and Bryan O'Carroll raced as the Irish heavy 2- and won in a tight race. Great performance lads, well done.

A very disappointing few days for the club and athletes in Cork at this year's Senior, Inter and Novice Championships. After good success the weekend before by the juniors in the non championship events, hopes were high of a few good results. Success was very limited with Patrick Moore, apart from boats in straight finals, being the only one to make it out of a heat. It was disappointment for the coaches and athletes who put in a very hard year and countless hours of training and organising only to be outshone by some great performances on the day. Previous strongholds of championships such as NUIG and Commercial came away with nothing and all St. Mick's could manage was the bow seat in a composite WS 4X-. Times have changed this year in Irish rowing but Neptune will no doubt rebuild for the coming season and be back stronger, faster and more successful than ever - roll on 2009.

MI 1X - Bryan O'Carroll finishes 4th in heat and fail to qualify while Paddy Moore wins his heat and moves to semis

MS 8+ Neptune / OCBC composite miss out on a final place to NUIG by 0.07 sec

MS 2- Neptune crew of Moore / O'Carroll finish 4th in heat one by 1/2 length and fail to make final while John Forde in the composite boat finish second in heat two and progress to the final

MS 2- ( O'Carroll / Moore ) ( Kelly / Walsh ) ( Forde / St. Michael's Composite )

MI 8+ ( Brett / Donnelly / Brett / Brett / Kelly / McDonnell / Crushell / Kennedy / Moloney )

WN 8+ ( Hogan / Power / Kenny / Graham / Kelly / Lane / Hynes / Boyd / Moore )

Three MJ15 1X in three finals - Jack Browne 4th David Butler 2nd and Mark O'Hara 1st

Three MJ16 2X competed for place in final from 17 entries but failed to qualify

The Irish Amateur Rowing Union has announced the composition of both crews they have nominated to the Olympic Council of Ireland for the Beijing Olympic Games. The Irish lightweight men’s four (LM4-) that secured Olympic qualification at the final Olympic Qualifying regatta in Poland recently remains unchanged; Cathal Moynihan, Gearoid Towey, Richard Archibald and Paul Griffin will race at the Games. Richard Coakley will travel to Beijing as the spare man for the boat. The heavyweight men’s four (M4-) that secured Olympic qualification at last year’s World Championships sees two changes from the crew that raced in the recent World Cup series. Jonno Devlin and Sean Casey who raced in a heavyweight pair this season come into the middle of the Irish boat for Beijing, Sean O’Neill switches to the stroke seat in place of Alan Martin, and Cormac Folan switches to the bow seat in place of James Wall. Alan Martin has been selected to travel to the Beijing as the spare man for the boat, while James Wall; the youngest of the six misses out. Both Irish crews are in the middle of their final training camps ahead of the Games. Under coach John Holland the lightweight four (LM4-) are working out of Varese in Italy, with the heavyweight four (M4-) finalising their preparations in St.Moritz, Switzerland under their coach Harald Jahrling. Both Irish crews will travel to Beijing on July 27th where they will be based in the Olympic Village. The 2008 Olympic regatta will be held at Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park on the side of the Chaobi River from August 9-17th.

The club only sent a few boats down to Inniscarra for the Homes trials incorporating Monkstown Regatta, two pairs ( one composite ) and a composite coxless four raced. The four was off the pace but the pairs did very well with John Forde and Kevin O'Connor finishing second to Trinity and Patrick Moore and Bryan O'Carroll a couple of lengths back in third qualifying them for the Irish team for the Homes in Cardiff on 26th July.

Irish lightweight four qualify for Olympics with 2nd place in Poznan final

The Irish men’s lightweight four (LM4-) of Paul Griffin, Richard Archibald, Gearoid Towey and Cathal Moynihan has qualified for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The Irish quartet put in an impressive performance in the final of the Olympic Qualifying regatta in Poznan, Poland, this morning to take second in the final, behind Germany. Only the first two boats of the six finalists across the line won Olympic qualification. The Irish four put together a great race to finish with two seconds to spare over the Serbians in third. Today’s performance by the four means Ireland will now have two boats racing at the Olympic regatta in Shunyi Olympic Rowing Park. The lightweight four join the men’s heavyweight four (M4-) who secured Olympic qualification at last year’s World Championships. The crews for both boats will be finalised in mid July. In today’s final the much fancied German four setting a blistering pace off the start and throughout the first half of the 2000metre test. The Irish four also set off fast knowing they needed to get ahead of the pack rather than be chasing it if they were to realise their goal of Olympic qualification: “We’d a great first 500 metres, we went out to make a statement early on...we went out as hard as we could. We went faster than we’ve ever gone in the first 500metres. We did plenty early on to make sure we didn’t have to fight for it against the Spanish like we did in the heat, so that was our plan and we did it well ” said Killarney’s Cathal Moynihan afterwards. “The lads did really well today, I knew after about 400 metres that we were going to do it; there was a lot of power behind me today”, added Paul Griffin, who strokes the boat. As this was the last chance for boats to qualify for the Games all four were feeling the pressure and knew just how tough it was going to be: “It's so cut throat. We've gone out there before and come away with medals, but medals don't mean that much today. It was about taking the next step. Normally the Serbs and Spanish wouldn't give us too much bother, we wouldn't think about them. But everybody is throwing everything at this. Their lives are on the line. It was great to get a good performance out today”, said Richard Archibald as they came off the water. After the loss of form this crew suffered last year this achievement means all the more to them: “It’s been a really hard year, we rose out of the dead. Ten months ago in Munich was a real low point in my rowing career, we’d a hard winter, the boys have been great, coaching has been great, everything has been great”, said Griffin. “I mean we all put in a very hard winter and if we hadn’t have qualified it would have been hell – all that work”, added Towey. The four will now take a ten day break to rest and recuperate before heading for a training camp in Italy.

The 2008 Olympic regatta will be held at Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park on the side of the Chaobi river from August 9-17th.

At the final Olympic qualifying regatta in Poznan, Poland this morning the Irish men's lightweight four (LM4-) of Paul Griffin, Richard Archibald, Gearoid Towey and Cathal Moynihan won their heat to advance directly to Wednesday's final. The top two boats across the line in that final on Wednesday will secure Olympic qualification. As expected the Spanish four had the fastest start of the six boats in the heat. They went on to lead the field right up until about the 1750metre mark when the Irish quartet, who had been occupying a close second, drew level with them, ahead of the Serbian four in third. The Irish crew continued on to move through the Spanish with assurance, and took the win with just over second to spare crossing the line, with the Serbian four over three seconds back in third. South Africa came in fourth with Ukraine and Portugal taking fifth and sixth respectively. There was no surprise in how the race played out, as Gearoid Towey explained: “We had a talk about it before we went out – how we thought the race was going to pan out and that’s exactly how it did work out. The only thing that was different was that we didn’t expect them (the Spanish) to hang on for so long. Probably with 250metres to I don’t think there was any doubt that we wouldn’t go through them.” The German four impressively won the other heat of the lightweight four, with over six and a half seconds to spare on the Czechs, to also take the direct route to the final. In winning their heats the Irish and German fours benefit from a rest day tomorrow, while the remaining ten crews must race again in the repechages for just four places in Wednesday's final. Looking forward to that final the Irish four have a clear approach; “Obviously Germany are the crew to beat for us here. Looking forward if we want to have any Olympic ambitions we know they’re our targets so we’re still going out to race them. We’re not going out just to target qualification; we want to go and race them”, explained Towey. “It’s a good way to psychologically approach the final as well rather than racing negatively to not come outside the top two, and go and try and beat the Germans; they’ll be in the lane beside now in the final so that’ll be good”, added stroke man Paul Griffin.

The biggest entry of the year headed to Athlone for a great days racing. Although it's never a great place to watch rowing, the days racing threw up some good results. Following some good heat results the finals threw up a few wins and also some good places. The MJ16 2X came in third along with the MN 4X+ and the MS 2-, second place for the MS 2- composite by about 2ft and gold for the MJ15 2X, MJ15 4X+ and the MJ16 4X+.

An Irish rowing team of three boats will race in the final Olympic qualifying regatta, in Poznan, Poland beginning on Sunday next (15th June) in a bid to qualify for this summer's Olympic Games in Beijing. The lightweight men's four (LM4-) of Paul Griffin, Richard Archibald, Gearoid Towey and Cathal Moynihan, the lightweight men's double (LM2x) of Eugene and Richard Coakley, and the heavyweight men's pair (M2-) of Sean Casey and Jonno Devlin all face the tall order of having to finish inside the top two in their respective classes, if they are to secure a starting berth in Beijing. The majority of Olympic qualifying spots were won at the World Championships last year. The men's lightweight four (LM4-) sees one change from the crew that raced a fortnight ago at the last World Cup in Lucerne. In a change based on form Killarney's Cathal Moynihan comes into the bow seat for Eugene Coakley, who moves into the lightweight double alongside his younger brother Richard. Twelve crews are entered for the lightweight four with just two qualifying spots available. The Irish quartet raced well at the previous two World Cup regattas in Lucerne and Munich with Germany the only other non qualified boat finishing ahead of them on both occasions. However, the Serbian, Spanish, Greek and Czech crews are all set to be right up there when the places are decided in the final, on Wednesday.

An early start after a long day in Blessington the day before saw a large junior entry head to Carlow with a few of the men's novice crew for another great days racing. The juniors had some great racing with, again, some great success in the MJ15 2x of Daniel Murphy and David Butler and the MJ15 4X+ which, along with the two lads included Stephen Donaldson, Jack Browne and Conor Murphy. The novice men in their first sculling outing saw Jamie Kirby and Donal O'Sullivan win their way through to the semi finals in the MN 2X while on the other side of the draw, Tom Bex and Franck Bonnier went all the way to the final to go down by just 3 lengths. Well done to all.

There hasn't been a better day for Metro Regatta in years with the sun splitting the stones all day long. There was a large Neptune entry but unfortunately very little success despite some great racing on the day. Victories were recorded by the MJ15 4X+ and the MJ15 2X who both fended off some tough competition to take the gold.

Following the blow out of the day before in Inniscarra the crews were ready to get down to some serious racing over the sprint course at Fermoy. There was a lot of action over the short course with the women coming out on top, getting the just rewards for their hard training with victories in the WN 8+ and WN 4+.

The long journey to Cork made by about 30 Neptune athletes was all in vain as, after about 2 hours of terrible conditions and very difficult racing, the event was cancelled. The boats were loaded back up but the sunshine was not wasted as we broke out the bbq's and got some sunshine. A wasted day of racing but a great day of fun and a warm up for the night ahead.

Once again Neptune's Junior group headed North, this time to Enniskillen and Portora Junior regatta. Weather conditions were much better than Portadown although there was a nasty little cross-wind that tended to blew crews, particularly Neptune ones, off-course. The great and the good of junior rowing in the North were competing and sad to say Neptune came away empty handed. The previously invincible MJ15 4X were beaten by eventual winners Portora by a half length. Our WJ14 4X suffered a similar fate also to Portora as did the MJ16 2X who were beaten by Methodist College. The club also competed at MJ14 4X, MJ16 4X, and MJ15 2X. There were no sculling events. Not a good day at the office but next stop Metro and Carlow.

Neptune's Junior Group headed North at the crack of dawn and had tremendous day out at Portadown regatta. In contrast to the debacle that was Limerick regatta, Portadown ran like a clock work despite a serious gale force tail wind that would have blown a ... well you know the rest. Four wins and some excellent performances were recorded. The big win of the day was the maiden victory of the WJ14 4X+, well done to Rebecca, Kate, Aoife, Emer and cox Alison. AJ Rawlinson exploded onto the scene with a big win in the MJ16 1X, Mark O'Hara took the MJ15 1X, while business as usual for the lads of the MJ15 4X+ winning in style in their final. Unfortunately, our MJ14 4X had to be pulled due to the weather conditions. Altogether, a great outing and the regatta finished on time.

Absolute Chaos - the best way to describe an embarrassment of a regatta held in a windy O'Briensbridge. After starting 20 mins late it proceeded to get steadily worse throughout the day with no communication from the regatta control to athletes or coaches, no idea how far behind the schedule the racing was or when any race was expected to be sent away. Having been informed by regatta control that it was 40 minutes to their final time, the WI8+ were launching only to see their race coming past the finish line while other boats were over an hour and a half waiting at the start. The badly laid course meant that every second race was stopped with crews getting caught up in the ropes. No lanes were visible from mid way through the day and both safety and umpiring launches were absent all throughout the day. The club did rise above the difficulties and came away with two great wins. Paddy Moore continues his winning streak along with Bryan O'Carroll in the MS2- and the women's group finally came good in a great race to take gold in the WI4+ final.

At the presentation of the Pimm's Trophy for the most successful club at Neptune Regatta was Barry Crushell, Philip Keane, Jason Brooke ( Captain UCD BC ) and Alan Ludlow ( Captain Neptune RC ). The trophy was presented at Trinity Regatta 2008.

A mixed day for the club at this year's Trinity Regatta. Patrick Moore took the only senior members victory with the MI 1X while it was a great day for the Men's Juniors, taking home 4 big wins. Jack Browne took gold in the MJ15 1X, wins for the MJ15 & MJ16 2X and nicely rounded off with the ever powerful MJ15 4X+.

Keen to get some racing in before the World Cup series the Irish Lightweight Squad competed in Peidiluco Regatta this weekend. Sinead Jennings and Caroline Ryan also competed in the Women’s Open single sculls. This group will train in Peidiluco for the next week. On Sunday, due to injury, the line-up of the LM4- was changed with Neptune's Cathal Moynihan replacing Eugene Coakley. Beating the Italians (bronze medallists from last year’s World Championship) was a fantastic performance by the lightweight four demonstrating impressive strength and maturity from this squad who have moved on so far from the disappointments of last season. The way the crew coped with the last minute change early on Sunday morning also shows the strength of this squad. It was good to see improvements from the women’s group through the weekend. The next event for the lightweights and the open women will be the World Cup in Munich next month.

Saturday saw the 26th running of our own regatta comprising of a timetabled 203 races from 8am to 7pm, one every three minutes. As always with the leadership of the regatta chairman, Jimmy O'Neill, the day ran like clockwork with the only one not playing their part being the weather. Rain, hail, sunshine and wind was the order of the day in a pick and mix of all the elements but it failed to distract from some cracking races. The Green & Black Attack came home with three wins on the day but overall invaluable short course racing practice for the season ahead was gained. Paddy Moore defeated Bryan O'Carroll in a close fought all Neptune MI 1X final while the MJ15 2X of Daniel Murphy and David Butler saw off all competition to take gold in their event. The lads were back in action later that day too as they stormed home in the MJ15 4X+ with the help of Jack Browne, Stephen Donaldson and Conor Murphy steering the lads to victory. Another great addition to the occasion was the attendance of an Oxford University VIII who took on an Islandbridge selection in an outstanding race to the line. The Oxford boat saw a mix of the Isis and Blue boats that were both victorious over Cambridge a few weeks previous on the Tideway. Both crews stormed off the start in the high 40's but it was Islandbridge, featuring Aodhan Kelly and Bryan O'Carroll of Neptune, who had the edge by a canvass. At the bend, Oxford on the North Station stole back the slight advantage to lead by a foot and as the crews levelled out for the final sprint to the line. Past the clubs it was Islandbridge who laid down the heat to have a canvass passing Neptune and about half a length as they crossed the line. Both crews were cheered all the way by the full bank of spectators and it was handshakes all round as the lads replaced the oars with pints and got a taste of true Neptune hospitality for the rest of the day and night.

This year the re-arranged Dublin Head was restricted to VIII's only and had a small entry of just 23 boats, four of which came from Neptune. Although no wins were recorded on the day there was some positive performances by all the crews in the last Head race of the season. The focus is now on Neptune Regatta on the 12th of April and the start of the 'real' racing for 2008.

Neptune's Martin Walsh, seated in four, rowed to victory in the traditional opener to the Blue Boat Race. Isis won comfortably in the end as did their compatriots in the more publicisied race of the day. Martin and his team mates from both boats will be over to attend and race in this years regatta.

An entry of twelve crews made the trip to Galway for what is traditionally the biggest Head event of the season. Entries were notably down on previous years, not helped by last years fiasco of an event as well as the Gannon Cup race in Dublin on the same day, ensuring the non attendance of Trinity and UCD. Conditions were windy as usual but it was a welcome tail wind, making for some fast times on the day. Head One saw three Neptune Senior 2X ( two composites ) Masters 4+ and Women's Novice 8+ on the water. The Master's came out top of their pile while the doubles finished 2nd, 3rd and 4th in their event. Head Two had the composite 2- ( 2nd ) and a number of scullers racing with the best result coming from Paddy Moore as he romped home to win the Inter 1X. It was all about the ladies for the last head as there was a Senior 4-, Novice 4+ and Senior 2X competing. All the girls go some great racing experience from the event as, with only Dublin Head remaining next week sees the end of the head season for 2007 / 2008.

Neptune sent two boats to compete in one of the world's biggest head races. With an entry of 420 eights from all over the world the race had all grades of adult rowers competing. Conditions were as good as could be expected on the Thames and the 6.82 km course was certainly an eye opener to the majority of participants. Neptune II outshined their team mates in Neptune I by finishing in 20 mins 26.66 secs in 260th place. Neptune I came in with a time of 20 mins 49.19 secs in 298th place. The event was won by Leander I in a time of 17 mins 39.57 secs.

Life long Neptune man, Martin Walsh is to race in the Isis ( Oxford Blue Reserve ) Eight on Boat Race day this year. Martin is delighted with the selection after putting in a mammoth effort over the past number of months, but is of course disappointed that he hasn't made the Blue Boat. Still only 22 with another year left in Oxford he is confident for his chances for next year. Martin has rowed at all levels with Neptune and has represented Ireland at Junior, Under 23 and Coupe levels. Stay in touch with his progress on the links below:

Wild and windy conditions the previous day were not going to deter the event from going ahead and as it turned out the conditions on the water for the race itself were quite good. We had three eights entered for one of the longest races on the IARU calendar, a six kilometre all out effort from the Upper Erne back into Enniskillen town, finishing in the grounds of Portora Royal School. There was an intermediate 1st and 2nd crew who managed 4th and 5th respectively with the A crew 1min 9secs off Queens University who won it and the B crew a further 1min 1 sec off the A boat. The Junior 16 Men's eight had some bad luck with their tiller which broke off about half way but they still managed to limp to finish in a time of 24mins 29secs. Spuddy was disappointed about the bad luck as the lads were really up for this race and were confident of doing very well. The next outing for the juniors will be, no doubt, a great run at Tribes Head on the 22nd.

Ten boats headed up the M1 to Belfast to compete in the two heads at this years Lagan Head. The first head, a 2,700m sprint saw Andrew compete in the MJ18 1X and Tom and Paddy race the MI 1X, with Paddy coming 3rd, off the lead by 14 seconds. The MN 4+ raced well to take 3rd while the WN 4+ had a fantastic row to come in 2nd, just 3 seconds off first. The inter ladies also competed in the WS 2X. The big boats and the big result came out in the second head, a 4,200m race through the middle of Belfast. The WS 4X and WI 8 didn't have great days and the MI 8 was a little off the pace but the big guns came out in the MI 4+ who took the win, the first of 2008 for the club.

A packed function room in the Kilmainham Hilton paid tribute to the many names that brought the club through it's glorious first 100 years in existence. Tributes we paid to many who have influenced the direction the club has taken leading to its phenomenal success in the past decades. The night moved back to the members lounge at Islandbridge until the early hours and a great night was had by all.

It was all hands on deck as the green and black brigade took to Dundrum Town Centre for an eight hour fundraising effort. Huge effort was shown by all members and parents on the day as much needed funds were gathered in the many buckets that were shook around the centre. The plan was to row 400,000 metres on four ergos in the eight hours but with an audience of thousands throughout the day and some healthy competition we managed 450,000 metres in seven hours and forty minutes. Well done to all who took part but special mention to Gerry Murphy who, as usual, brought it all together and ran it on the day.

Des a good friend of Irish sport, especially rowing, died on Sunday 27^th January, after a short illness. Des had a long association with Irish sport serving as President of the Olympic Council of Ireland from 1977 to 1989. His was closely involved with rowing, both on the water and off the water all his life. He joined Neptune Rowing Club in the early 40’s and made a significant contribution to the development and life of Neptune, both as a cox and an extremely dedicated administrator; holding positions as Secretary, Captain and President of Neptune through the 50’s and 60’s. He was an excellent motivator with a clear vision for the development of Neptune Rowing Club. Des was not just a club man; he also served on the executive of the Irish Amateur Rowing Union and was a driving force behind Dublin Metropolitan Regatta Council. He was one of the fare sighted administrators behind the moving of Dublin Metropolitan Regatta to its current six lane course on Blessington Lake. Des will be sadly missed by his friends, young and old, within rowing and Irish sport.

A change of venue in the final few days leading up to the competition diminished a number of the club's entries but we had very positive rows from the novice / inter women's group in the eight and four as well a couple of good runs from the men's novice four. It was great race experience and judging by the results we are in for a good season ahead in their categories. Well done to all who participated.