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Castleconnel HOD ; David Lynch, Oisin Lawlor, Sam Callinan, Niall McCarthy
Gold Medal for Tralee pair at Castleconnell Head of the River
Gold medals were awarded to Aoife O’Connell & Alex Moritz who finished first in their race, WJ162x a fiercely competitive category.
This reflects the hard work and training that our junior crews are putting into their strength and skills development.
Tralee Rowing Club travelled to Castleconnell Boat Club for their Head of the River last weekend with a entry of 30 TRC crews racing, both junior and adults.
19 clubs and over 380 crews competed in different junior and adult categories on the day.
In what were tough, changeable & challenging conditions our rowers put in strong performances with good humour & TRC team spirit.
Castleconnell HOD; Niamh Ní Ghráinne and Paula Moloney
Congratulations to all, particularly our first time racing rowers ( in the wind & rain ! )
Thanks as always to our rowers, coaches, parents, volunteers for putting in the teamwork required to make this happen.
According to our Club Captain Heidi Giles; “The run in to Castleconnell HOR was a bit of a rollercoaster as the forecast was so changeable. Thankfully the event went ahead and our junior novices have been exposed to their first Head of the River, our experienced juniors performed well, and they are pushing our expectations of them higher with every event we attend, the masters women in the club participated in this event in bigger numbers than ever before.
Gold medal winners Aoife OConnell & Alex Moritz
The club rowers worked together, regardless of age, experience and gender to get boats on and off the water and supported each other really well, the parents in attendance were a fantastic asset and our coaching team showed up in force for a long but satisfying day. As ever no one would be going anywhere without our trailer tower, thanks!”
Mary Boner and Cub Captain Heidi Giles .
Farewell to Mary Boner as Club Chairperson at AGM
We recently held our club AGM at The Ashe Hotel, it was a night of celebration and a sad farewell.
Mary Boner was one of our founding member in 2005.
Her hard work and tenacity was well summed up in the words of our Club Captain Heidi Giles on the night as Mary was awarded honorary life membership.
“It is said rowing was invented to prevent extraordinary people taking over the world, to move to a town, see a patch of water and think: there should be a rowing club there, is one thing to persist until it happens is quite another.
To persist while boats need to be driven from storage in Blennerville for every session, to persist when several boats need to be removed from a container in order to get at any boats, to coach back to back sessions when the nearest toilet is at at Brandon Hotel, to persist when the ropes from the old pontoon have been stolen again and it is floating in the middle of the basin, to persist when the high tide has beached the pontoon, and a digger will be needed to push it back before rowing will be possible.
To persist when planning permission for a boathouse seemed impossible to get, when a legal issue threatened the application for boathouse funding, these are a fraction of the challenges, the big ticket visual ones.
There was also the issue of being the only experienced coach in the club at times, and the core of a much smaller less experienced team than we have now.
This courage, tenacity and little bit of madness proves Mary is extraordinary. I am so glad, proud and grateful that instead of taking over the world she built a rowing club.
With this in mind the rest of the club committee have unanimously agreed and I know every single member past and present will agree with our decision to present honorary life membership to Mary Boner”
We would also like to warmly welcome James Morris as our new Club Chairperson and wish him much luck in his new role.
This amazing group of people were also awarded trophies on the night
Junior Men Rower of the Year 2022
Sean Morris
Consistent Commitment Award 2022
Niall McCarthy
Consistent Commitment Award 2022
Sam Callinan
Junior Women Rower of the Year 2022
Rosie Giles
Junior Women Most Improved Rower 2022
Catherine Steward
Junior Women Most Improved Rower 2022
Sadhbh Cadogan
Junior Club Spirit Award 2022
Aoife O’Connell
Rowing Role Model of the Year 2022
Paula Moloney
Tralee Rowing Club
Outstanding Contribution 2022
John Patton
Tralee Rowing Club
Honorary Membership
Martin Walsh
