Tipperary rowing club's novel idea - can't row on river so let's go to the Main Guard!

The weather is playing havoc with the rowing calendar these times as the Skibbereen Head of River fell victim to the inclement weather conditions and the rowers in Clonmel were left disappointed once again after strong winds forced the cancellation of this popular annual HOR event.

Clonmel Rowing Club have been unable to train on the water for the last five weeks due to high water levels. This hasn’t stopped everybody from putting in a good shift on the machines and following this up with strength and conditioning work in Elevate gym.

One rower who got in some competition was Paul Nugent who on November 5 took part in the SilverSkiff HOR. This takes place on the river Po in Turin, Italy over an 11km course. In an unusual departure from what we are used to in rowing, participants row up the river for 5.5km and then have to turn around on a marker buoy and row back down the river again. Over 700 scullers from all over the world took part. They included several current Olympic champions including one Martin Sinkovic, whom Clonmel’s Daire Lynch has had the odd skirmish with over the past year. Sinkovic went on to win the event with world lightweight champion Gabriel Soares in second.

The ever-Greenane Paul Nugent didn’t feature in the top 10, not even in the top 100, but he says he will be back next year to put things right.

SPONSORSHIP BOARD
Off the water our committee have come up with a sponsorship board, like what you see football players being interviewed in front of after a match. The first three sponsors on the board are MNTS Signage Cahir, Conor Fleming opticians and Paul Tobin Butchers who kindly sponsored a talk given to the club by a sports nutritionist.

Some of the elite rowers have to consume a massive 6,000 calories/day to fuel the heavy workload they undergo in training. Just remember all calories are not equal, so try to cut out the junk processed food and eat more meat which is an excellent source of quality protein.

ROWING AT THE MAIN GUARD
Coming up on Saturday, December 16 we are bringing our rowing machines down to the Main Guard in O’Connell Street where the people of the town and hinterlands can see who is really putting in the training. That event runs from 10 am to 4 pm on the Saturday.

WEEKLY LOTTO
Our weekly lotto is going well. Next week’s jackpot is €650. To join www.our fundraiser.ie/org/crc