News
Very sad news this morning about a very valued member of the coaching staff. Darren helped many members of the rowing club, at all levels. He was always very cheerful and wanted to get the best out of his athletes.
On behalf of all COBRA members I extend our deepest condolences to Paula, Gemma and Callum.
Jamie Gibson
COBRA Chairman
Irish Championships 2024
This year COBRA members Matthew Boyce, John Harte, Hugh Moore and Fergus Bryce competed for Queen’s University, Belfast in Cork.
Friday saw exciting races with Hugh in the Senior 2x, coming in a close 2nd to University College Cork. John and Matthew raced in the heat of the Club 2 4+, unfortunately narrowly missing out on a spot in the final later that evening.
Saturday began with our CGSRC J18 double’s time trial, where they placed 8th out of 36, only the top 6 went forward to the final this year.
John’s Novice 4x+ convincingly won their heat and went on to achieve a close 2nd place in the final.
In the afternoon Hugh and Fergus raced in heat 1 of the Senior 4x, winning their heat. Matthew placed 3rd in heat 2 of the Senior 4x, but only 2 boats progressed to the final.
Hugh and Fergus raced again in the evening in the final, storming through crews from Cork, Limerick, Dublin and Belfast to secure the championship of Ireland!
Sunday was another day full of success.
Fergus began the day by qualifying a spot in the final of the Intermediate 2x from the time trial. Later on that morning they won another pot for their collection, winning the final by 5.2 seconds!
Next was John and Matthew in the Club 2 VIII+, comfortably securing their place in the final by winning their heat! Later they placed 6th in a stacked final.
Hugh, Fergus, Matthew and John finished the weekend with a 5th place in the Senior VIII+.
Our CGSRC J16 sculler also raced in a tough time trial, placing 8th overall.
Massive well done to all involved!
Good luck to all our COBRA members racing for Queen’s University Belfast and our two CGSRC rowers at the Irish Championships this weekend!
Timetable below:
Friday
M Club 2 4+ : Matthew Boyce and John Harte
M Senior 2x : Hugh Moore
Saturday
W J18 2x : CGSRC
M Novice 4x+ : John Harte
M Senior 4x ‘A’: Hugh Moore and Fergus Bryce
M Senior 4x ‘B’: Matthew Boyce
M Inter 2- : Matthew Boyce
Sunday
M Inter 2x : Fergus Bryce
M Club 2 8+ : John Harte and Matthew Boyce
W J16 1x : CGSRC
M Senior 8+ : Hugh Moore, Fergus Bryce, Matthew Boyce and John Harte
Livestream:
https://www.youtube.com/live/o1YcJUIPBu4?si=vWAQF3Vv1h1foxgl
Henley Royal Regatta 2024
Henley week began with qualifiers on Friday where COBRA member Molly Curry raced down the 2112m track in a composite crew, comfortably securing a spot in The Princess Grace Challenge Cup.
Kirsty Dalzell also time trialled in the University of Nottingham ‘B’ VIII+ but unfortunately missed out on qualifying her boat for The Island Challenge Cup.
Molly raced the first rounds of The Princess Grace Challenge Cup on Thursday, unfortunately coming up against a finalist crew, a composite from Switzerland and Canada.
Hugh Moore and Fergus Bryce, racing for Queen’s University, Belfast, prequalified their quad for The Prince of Wales Challenge Cup. On Wednesday and Thursday they dominated crews from Denmark and a composite of Lea RC and London RC.
Their next challenge was the semi-final where they met the Leander quad who unfortunately took them by a mere 3/4 of a length. Overall, a fantastic performance from the young Queen’s crew. Leander went on to win the final on Sunday.
Having prequalified in The Island Challenge Cup, Rachel Bradley, racing in the Newcastle University ‘A’ VIII+, began her Henley campaign with the heats on Wednesday and Thursday, beating crews from the USA and the Netherlands by multiple lengths!
Friday and Saturday brought us nail-biting quarter and semi-finals as in both races Newcastle rowed through their opposition after initially taking the lead and dropping back momentarily.
After a seriously tough week of racing this landed Newcastle in the final, making history in doing so.
On Sunday Rachel and her Newcastle crew took to the water to race Oxford Brookes ‘A’. Rachel is the first ever ex-Coleraine Grammar School Rowing Club member to make it to finals day at HRR.
She also falls into an elite club, and to the best of our knowledge (please correct us if we are wrong) of only 3 people who are COBRA members and HRR finalists.
This exclusive group of people consists of GB Olympian and 3x Diamond Challenge Sculls winner Alan Campbell (Alan also came runner up in the Queen Mother Challenge Cup event for Elite Men’s 4x- in 2005) and Brendan Smyth, who raced to finals of the Thames Challenge Cup in 2005 when his crew came up short against Henley RC.