Sligo Rowing Club’s Katie McEnroe sets new Irish record at National Indoor Championships

Sligo Rowing Club athletes travelled to the University of Limerick earlier this month to take part in the annual National Indoor Rowing Championships which is always a great opportunity to test form and fitness coming out of winter training and heading into the spring water racing season.

The Indoor Championships is held in the main sports hall in U.L. and on Concept Indoor Rowing Machines.

The racing takes place on 60 rowing machines which are digitally connected to each other and each machine is projected on to a large screen and the races can be viewed by the spectators from the grandstand.

A total of 24 athletes travelled from Sligo and all with expectations of breaking their own personal bests. The competition distances varied from a 3 min race for the Junior 13 athletes to the dreaded 2,000m flat out sprint.

The highlight of the day was undoubtedly the performance of Sligo’s Katie McEnroe in the women’s lightweight 40-49 age category. Katie only took up rowing in 2019 through the Club’s leisure rowing programme coached by Ray Murtagh. It wasn’t long before she was lured into the more serious, competitive side of rowing and her talents shone through very quickly. Katie, a school teacher at Rathcormack National School and mum of three young children, managed to balance life with her gruelling, 6 days a week training schedule. The Irish record for her event was 7min 36 sec set in 2014 by former Irish International Rower Siobhan Foreman and Katie knew she would have to be on top form to challenge Foreman’s record.

Katie’s parents, Paddy and Sally were among the hundreds of spectators as was her youngest girl Sally and the noise and tension was palpable as the race began with a sprint start. Coach Tommy Colsh talked her through the early stages in an effort to ensure that she remained on pace but also managed that pace to ensure she didn’t go off too hard and suffer in the final 1000m. Katie settled into an incredible, strong rhythm and at the half way mark she was on pace to match Foreman’s record. But McEnroe did not train all winter and travel to Limerick to ‘match’ that record, she was here for one reason only, to break that record. Colsh knew it was going to be close and called for Katie to up the pace as she headed into the third 500m. With her pulse already hovering at 200 beats per minute, Katie summoned all of her bravery and changed gear. With 500m to go she was now ahead of record pace but the high intensity began to take its toll and the absolute suffering followed. Feeling her suffering and how tantalisingly close the record was, Katie’s parents and daughter left the Grand Stands and ran to the front barriers of the racing stage and roared Katie down the final 300m. Katie collapsed at the finish line in a time of 7min 32.2 secs, winning her event and a full 3 seconds inside the existing Irish record to the delight of the crowd and to the tears of her mam, dad and daughter Sally. This was an amazing achievement and well deserved for all of hard work and commitment Katie has shown to Rowing in the past three years. To show that rowing now runs in the family, Katie’s daughter Sally, at 9 years old, competed in the girls’ Junior 13 event.

While Sally enjoyed the experience of competing with the older 13-year-old girls, the business end of that event also featured a Sligo athlete. Ballymote native Clare Walsh, who is no stranger to success on the water in the past two years, was always going to be the one to beat in this age category. Confident in her ability and in the five day a week gruelling training sessions she completed each week since last September, Walsh was fully aware that she still had to perform on this biggest of indoor stages. And perform she did! Claire exploded out of the start and never relinquished the lead. She covered a staggering 823m in the 3 minutes, a full 33m ahead of the girl in second place. A fantastic achievement and hopefully a sign of things to come for the 2023 rowing season.

Amazingly the success continued for the Walsh family. Competing on team Sligo were Claire’s two sisters, Sarah in the girls J16 event and Emma in the girl’s J 15 event. Daughters of Pat and Rosaleen Walsh of Lissananny in Ballymote, the girls are regularly at the business end when it comes to racing on the water and it was to be no different at the indoor event.

Sarah was first up in the J16 2,000m event. She had a steady start and found herself in fifth place at the half way, 1,000m stage. She stayed very strong in the 3rd 500m and had moved into second place going into the last 500m. In the closing 200m, she fought off a strong challenge from Athlone’s Anna O’Grady and finished in a brilliant second place in this hugely competitive event.

Sligo had four girls entered in a field of 43 entrants for the women’s J15, 5 min event including Emma Lineen, Alannah Glacken, Rachael Clifford and Emma Walsh.

Emma Walsh finished in a very strong 6th place with 1275 metres clocked over the 5-minute time with Emma Lineen cheered on by her mother Shauna coming in an agonisingly 4th position being just out of the medals by 8 metres with 1302 metres achieved.

Alannah and Rachael also put in good performances coming in mid table with distances in excess of 1100 metres. The future bodes well for all these young ladies who continue to train both on and off the water.

The afternoon event saw Sligo field a number of 4-member relay teams both in the boys and girl’s categories where relay members alternate on the erg over the 2km distance with the first team to reach the 2km being deemed the winner.

Claire Walsh once again paired up with sister Emma Walsh, Emma Lineen and Rachael Clifford for the 3rd year girls relay where they went out hard in the early stages and changed between each member every 250m. Their early lead was challenged a number of times during the 2,000m but the brave efforts of the girls paid dividends and the four girls crossed the line in first place to the screams of the large Sligo support present.

Julie Seery, Alex Scott, Alannah Glacken, Sarah Walsh and Sara Anna Walsh all also put in good times in the testing relay category.

One of the most memorable races of the day was the boys Junior 13 3-minute category where youngsters Joey Hackett Farrell, Conor Sheridan and Alwin Krzempiec all put in tremendous performances for their age with Joey Hackett Farrell being undoubtedly the happiest youngster on the erg having a beaming smile throughout!

A 4th medal was brought home for Sligo by first time competitor Patricia McCaffrey taking home third position in the Women’s Masters. Patricia who came into rowing via the leisure rowing programme and who is now racing in racing shells and coached by Ailish Hackett continues to improve. Ailish herself returned to the competitive erg in support of Patricia and crew mate Cathy Rooney also a debutant with both of performing exceptionally well on the day.

Sligo also had a number of entrants in the tough competitive event of the Boys Junior 18 category where 73 entrants from around the country were entered. Finn Mitchell who is relatively new to the sport and who utilised his experiences from his last outing in UL in late 2022 achieved a very respectable placing of 16th with a time of 6:38 over the 2km distance in a field where the top positions were attained by Irish internationals. Daniel Sproule and Cathal Deery who was racing indoors for the first time also gained some valuable experience from this outing in this tough category and continues to improve in the gym. Thomas Sheridan who has recently showed a flare for the sculling single boat did well in the J16 category holding a sub 2 min 500 metre split throughout the 2km piece whilst Odhran Keating and Erwin Krzempiec put in strong performances in the men’s J15 5-minute category. All participants now turn their attentions more and more to on the water training as the Head of the River season continues and the Sprint Regatta season approaches in April.