Fast racing and big names will undoubtedly be the theme of this year’s men’s senior eights event at 2025’s Erne 8s Head of the River, which takes place this Saturday, 1 March. This season’s event has an unprecedented amount of talent with National Champions, World Champions and an Olympic medallist all competing for the top spot on the podium. With such high-caliber athletes across the field it will be no small feat to correctly predict the victors.
University College Dublin A (UCDBC)
UCD’s domination of this event came to an end last July when they failed to win this event at the 2024 Irish Rowing Championships, ending their five year winning streak. However this season, their men’s squad has had an injection of power into their team in the form of 2024 Olympic bronze medallist, Daire Lynch, who sits in the seven seat. With such a seasoned athlete in their midst, the UCD boys will be a force to be reckoned with.
University of Galway Boat Club (UGBC)
UGBC’s sculling squad have put together this crew and despite being a relatively young crew, University of Galway’s senior eight is no stranger to intense racing, with seven of the eight men having represented Ireland at a U19 World Rowing Championships over the last few years. A late addition to the crew, Donnacha Keeley, who clinched a gold medal at last year’s U23 World Rowing Championships, will undoubtedly add further speed to this crew. With the experience of former Enniskillen RBC coxswain, Katelyn Fee, this crew should be able to put on a strong display of rowing this coming Saturday.
Commercial Boat Club A
After seizing the win at the 2024 rendition of Erne Head of the River, Commercial Boat Club went on to finish in third place at the Irish Rowing Championships in July. At Erne 4s Head of the River, Commercial made up the entire podium with their A crew, B crew and D crew taking first, second and third place, respectively. After putting together a strong showing of rowing on this stretch of river already this season, I expect this crew to be in contention for the win this weekend.
Cork Boat Club
Last year’s national champions, Cork Boat Club, continued their winning ways last weekend at Cork Head of the River, where they won their category and set the fastest time of the day. This weekend, however, they will be missing a key member of their squad, Fionnan Tolan, who will be replaced by Finn O’Sullivan. Will Cork Boat Club manage to follow up their win in the South last weekend with a win up North this weekend?
Prediction
Such a high standard of athletes right across the board makes predicting the winners of this event extremely difficult, however, I would give the edge to Commercial Boat Club, whose history of winning on this 6.4km course is hard to ignore.
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