Irish rowers cover over 27 million metres on record-breaking weekend

Aifric Keogh (L) and Sanita Puspure (R) broke the half marathon world records in their categories.

Irish rowers set six world records on an incredible weekend for the sport with competitors nationwide covering over 27 million metres.

Rowing Ireland chiefs were "blown away" by the interest in their first virtual regatta which was sponsored by Kinetica.

With all activity on water on hold due to the national lockdown, officials decided to fill the void by pitting clubs against one another in a high-tech indoor regatta.

But nothing could have prepared them for the level of interest with over 2,700 entries received over the three days of competition which concluded on Monday evening.

Commercial RC were crowned top overall club while a number of national and world records were set.

Rowing Ireland's Chief Executive Officer, Michelle Carpenter said, "We organised the virtual regatta to give members something to row towards over the lockdown weekend. Generally, at this time of year, we are in full swing of regatta season around Ireland or Internationally. We were blown away with the participation in this event by everyone from our World Champion medallists to our Masters, Junior 15 and 18's breaking world records while competing for their clubs.

"Over 150 entries alone were submitted in the last 15 minutes of the competition Monday evening bringing a phenomenal total of 2,700 entries and 27,205,780 metres covered throughout the weekend.

"I want to congratulate every club athlete, coach and administrator who encouraged their members to take part in this event. Monumental work went into supporting the results from preparing food to keeping athletes busy with lingo bingo games. It's a testament to the comradery and family-like atmosphere in our clubs and athletes around the country. Kinetica has been our proud sponsor since 2019, and we were delighted they could join with us on our inaugural journey and celebrate as many as six World Indoor records.

"Our next step is to look at putting a safety plan in place in line with governmental and Sport Ireland guidelines so that we can all return to our clubs and National Rowing Centre safely within the dedicated timelines."

Records Broken: Aifric Keogh broke the world record for the 19-29 category- 01:18:59.9; Sanita Puspure broke the world record for the 30-39 category- 01:18:13.6; Phil Doyle broke the Heavyweight Irish and British Half Marathon Record- 1:15:12.7; Rosie Bell has set the record for a Half Marathon in the Women’s 60+ Category- 1.44.38; Hugh Moore broke the Irish Half Marathon Record in the 19-29 Lightweight Category- 1:15:09.08.

Irish Half Marathon Records: Hugh Sutton-01:18:38.7; Giselle Coulter - 1:31:02.4; Sam O'Neill - 1:17:47.4; Patti Mullin - 1:36:35.6.