Offaly’s Coleman claims silver at Irish Indoor Rowing Championships
Offaly rowers compete well at Limerick event
Offaly Rowing Club travelled to University of Limerick last Saturday with a five strong field to take part in the Irish Indoor rowing championships.
A gruelling test of stamina and power for all ages, the championships saw huge numbers compete from clubs all over the Country.
The under 14, 500 metre event saw a huge result for the Offaly club with Caden Coleman claiming the silver medal in the 78 man event. After claiming top spot in his heat, it was an anxious wait to see how the other heats played out but when all was said and done; his time of 1.31 minutes was enough to take second place just two seconds off the top spot.
Finn Lowry competed in two events in the under 13 category. First up was the three minute row where he clocked up an impressive 845 metres to take 10th place overall in a massive field of 78 entries.
Later in the afternoon he also competed in the 500 metre row and finished in a time of 1.39.7 minutes, enough for a 14th place finish out of 104 competitors.
Under 14 rowers David Mooney and Ben O’Grady also put in huge performances with both lads clocking over 1000 metres in the four minute row before going on to break sub two minutes in the 500m test of speed.
The under 16 ladies event saw Ciara Chambers also push herself to the limit with an eight place finish in the extremely tough 2000 metre event with a time of 8.30.3 minutes. She followed that up with the 500m event and another impressive row saw her take ninth place with a time of 1.55.9.
All five rowers put in huge performances in a highly competitive environment with Ben O’Grady making his indoors debut while Coleman, Lowry, Mooney and Chambers all beat their times with considerable gains from last year’s event held in November 2024.
The club has one more outing left this year when they travel to Lough Rinn in early December for the Head of the Shannon event, a 3km row in what will be a real test of endurance.