Portora Boat Club Women’s squad travelled to the edge of Lough Neagh on Saturday to compete in a Marascull.

Racing 16km up the River Bann under the M1 motorway into the centre of Portadown, in a wind that felt gale force at times.

In the first test of the 2024-25 season, Portora came home with a Master's category win and the fastest female sculler.

Helen Flanagan, sculling with sheer determination was the fastest women’s single in a time of 1hr 38mins 5secs. Flanagan’s success was all the more remarkable as all her available time recently was spent training for the Fermanagh FEAR.

A quad coxed competitively for the first time by Katelyn Fee raced down the course in a time of 1hr 54mins 33sec, beating four crews. A great achievement for a crew with limited mileage together.

The Portora women’s coxless quad stroked for the first time by Captain Chrisie Lunny stormed through the wind, winning in 1hr 33mins and 48sec, beating crews from Newry and Portadown Boat Club.

Women’s Captain Lunny commented: "It was a good day, everyone was in great form and excited, it was a wee bit contagious! And then we got on the water and all our hours of teaching blew away in the wind and it became a row for survival. Honestly, it was very tough. I am proud of all of our women rowers.”