By Jonathan Brown
STRANGFORD Coastal Rowing Club’s Women’s Veterans crew have been recognised for their outstanding performance at the Ocean to City An Rás Mór (The Big Race), held in Cork in May.
The Ocean to City race is Ireland’s largest coastal rowing event, with this year’s competition attracting more than 660 competitors across almost 200 crews from Ireland and Great Britain.
Representing Strangford were longstanding club members Melanie Hamill, Pauline Hunter, Andrea Donald and Amy Craig, alongside cox and current team captain Tom Murphy.
The crew claimed victory in the Women’s Veterans category and also finished third overall in the women’s competition after completing the gruelling 22-mile course from Crosshaven to Cork city centre.
The Women’s Veterans crew was one of two Strangford entries in the event, with the club’s Super Veteran Mixed Over-50s crew also taking to the water.
Racing under the team name ‘Amy and the Melanators’, the crew credited their success in part to a soundtrack of 1980s pop music, which kept spirits high throughout the two-and-a-half-hour race.
Tom Murphy praised the rowers’ performance and enthusiasm.
“The girls were fantastic, singing as they rowed and entertaining the other, somewhat bewildered, crews and supporters along the route,” he said.
