Sailing to Success at UCC

Last weekend UCC Canoe Club travelled to Belfast for the 2017 Intervarsities. In what was a mixed weekend for the college; the Leesiders came through the three day event with a number of success as well as individual awards.The competition began on Friday with the slalom competition with UCC’s Kevin and Seán Cahill, finishing in 11th and 13th position following a tense performance which left 2 gates missed. Later at the freestyle event UCC enjoyed a number of successes such as Fia Coghlan who finished in second place in women’s freestyle and picked up the inaugural Evan McArdle award for most entertaining freestyle performance of the event.Continuing into the weekend UCC travelled to River Roe to compete in the whitewater race. In miserable conditions 4 members of UCC had clean runs on the course. On Saturday afternoon the event transferred to Knockbracken reservoir for a game of Polo. UCC started well and won their first game convincingly, however they were narrowly beaten by NUIG 1-0 in their final group game; ending the college’s hopes of qualification.On Sunday morning UCC continued on in fine fashion and finished with 3 UCC Girls in the top 10 in women’s GP. Ciara Kirk came in 5th place while Ciara McGarrigle and Fia Coghlan where narrowly behind. Other notable performances were from Naoise Kennedy and James Hayes in men’s HP, Alan O’Regan in men’s sea Kayak, Ciaran Devine in men’s GP and in the duo race Sinéad Callanan and Elaine Fahy.UCC topped off the weekend with Kevin Cahill winning the Colm Johnson award; one of the most prestigious awards in Irish Universities Kayaking. This award was set up to remember Colm Johnson; a former student in UCC Canoe club who passed away on a kayaking trip to Norway in 2010. This award an award recognises the male kayaker who had made the greatest overall contribution to the colleges kayaking scene in the previous 12 months.