Athlone Boat Club set for big weekend as annual Regatta looms

Huge crowds are expected to descend on Coosan Point this Saturday, June 26, when Athlone Boat Club hosts its 41st Annual Regatta. A total of 120 races, 320 crews and over a 1,000 competitors will converge on the lakes of Lough Ree on the day. Crews from Galway, Belfast, Cork, Dublin, Limerick, Killarney, Sligo, Coleraine and many more clubs including Athlone Boat Club will take part in this penultimate regatta before the National Championships which will be held in the middle of July. Recently three young members of Athlone Boat Club - Sean Egan, Colin Barrett and Kevin Molloy - were selected to represent Ireland in the Junior Home Internationals which will be held in Inniscarra in Cork in mid July. "This is a great honour for the three lads, Sean, Colin and Kevin, their families and their club," said John O'Meara of Athlone Boat Club. "A great effort was put in by all three oarsmen training seven days a week and by their coaches who guided them and helped them." Looking forward to the weekend's regatta, which is always a major occasion in the local sporting calendar, John urged the local community to come out and support the event. "We have attracted a very large entry again this year and I'm glad to say they once again come from both north and southern Ireland. We are hoping that the fantastic recent weather will continue until the weekend," he said. "The Athlone Regatta is one of the highlights of the year and it is a fun event. We are looking forward to yet another well organised and competitive regatta, and I would encourage people to come out and support it. We have a very dedicated group of people who commit to organising and securing this event every year. I hope people will get behind the regatta and we look forward to everyone having a terrific time this weekend," added John. The Regatta starts at 8.00am on Saturday and continues without a break until 7.00pm with races every 5 minutes. John said the club was very thankful to all the sponsors of the regatta, saying the event would not be a success without their help.