Jes junior fours secure gold at Ghent Regatta

THE boys and girls of Colaiste Iognaid (Jes) enjoyed tremendous success at the 95th Ghent International Regatta which was held last weekend. The event attracted almost 2000 rowers from 16 countries and included crews from as far away as South Africa.

Despite the difficult weather conditions that were more associated with the west of Ireland, the Jes rowers performed with distinction and had their most successful Ghent regatta to date.

The highlight for the Jes was an excellent victory in the men’s junior 18 four. The Sea Road school led all the way in this race and had a comfortable victory over their rivals. The winning Jes crew was Luke Rigney, Eoghan Walls-Tuite, Kai McGlacken, Donal Coen and David Young (cox).

The Jes also had two impressive second place results; in the men junior coxless four and again in the junior 18 coxless four. Both races were very close with the Jes crew just missing out to a strong crew from the host Ghent club. The Jes crew for both races was Luke Rigney, Darragh McCarthy, Alex Coyne and Donal Coen.

Over the two days, there were many other notable performances including heat wins for Deirdre Coyne in the women’s junior 16 single sculls and for the crew of Seamus O’Donoghue and Barra Convery in the junior 16 double although both missed out on the medals in the overall classification.