Cork’s Gavin Sheehan in record-breaking row around Britain

LIAM GORMAN

A crew of four, including Gavin Sheehan from Cork, has broken the record for the fastest non-stop row around Britain. The crew, called the Islanders, rowed under Tower Bridge in London last evening 26 days, nine hours, nine minutes and 58 seconds after they had left it.

This was over five hours faster than the previous time for the 2,000-mile journey.

Sheehan (25) rowed for Ireland as a junior at the Home International Regatta in 2005. He has been studying in Britain and teamed up with Josh Taylor and Alan Morgan from Essex and James Plumley from Guernsey for this race.

The GB Row Challenge pledged a prize of £100,000 to a crew which beat the previous record of 26 days 14 hours and 11 minutes.

Sheehan and his twin brother Graham won the junior pairs title at the Irish Championships in 2005, representing Presentation Brothers, Cork.

The selection for this year’s Home International team and some of the crews for the Ireland under-23 team will be made on performances at Cork Regatta at the National Rowing Centre. The entry is so massive – 640 crews – that the Division One pairs and single sculls events will be raced today, in advance of a full programme tomorrow.

It is the meat in a sandwich of a jumbo weekend in Irish domestic rowing.

The rescheduled Irish Schools Championships start the show today at the NRC, and Skibbereen Regatta, also rescheduled, provides the finale on Sunday.

Two crews
Irish crews are also in action this evening in the qualifying round for Henley Royal Regatta. Queen's University must qualify from the Temple Cup for college eights; Galway Rowing Club have two crews in the junior women's quadruple sculls; Belfast Boat Club go in the Britannia for club coxed fours. The regatta starts on Wednesday and Ireland's best hope may be UCD in the Visitors' Cup.

While the reports of the problems on the Fisa Tour on the Shannon last weekend were overhyped – headlines of 18 boats capsized when 14 boats were swamped and nobody was hospitalised – Rowing Ireland yesterday urged clubs to constantly monitor safety.