SINCE its launch last year, the Northwest Rowing Club has gone from strength to strength and is now looking to acquire new equipment to help sustain its impressive progress.
The Northwest Rowing Club was established in Donegal Town last May, making it the first flat-water club in the area.
Head coach of the club, Daniel Krzempiec, has had a life long interest in the sport and decided to take the initiative to establish a club of its kind in the south Donegal town.
Having found a base at Lough Eske, on the outskirts of the town, the flat-water club has continued to grow since its start-up.
They offer a range of activities to their members such as on-water rowing sessions, land-based rowing sessions on rowing machines, indoor gym strength and conditioning sessions as well as opportunities to compete at regattas across the country.
There’s a lot of passionate volunteers involved in helping this progress and Daniel expressed that they are going to carry on doing so.
“There was no flat-water rowing club in the area and we’ve been travelling long distances. I was coaching for a club in a different county and between travelling time and everything, it was too big of a commitment.
“We decided to take this venture and start flat-water rowing, which has been my entire life since I was a youth myself.
“I took a look and I realised that there’s no reason that Donegal Town shouldn’t have a flat-water rowing club. It’s much harder than in other areas that are at an advantage geographically compared to Donegal Town.
“We’re right on the coast of the Atlantic however, Lough Eske represents a potential. It’s difficult but we decided that we’d see how it works out for us. We’re doing it and we’re not going to stop.”
Like the formation of most organisations, the North West Rowing Club have experienced some challenges since their launch.
But the club’s head coach discussed that the strength of the committee involved outweighs the difficulties which gives them the ability to keep pushing forward.
The biggest obstacle that the south Donegal club has encountered to date is the limited equipment available to the athletes.
The club currently has around 20 active members and this is likely to increase as time goes on.
Having funded the club’s current equipment at the start-up, Daniel stated that they’re currently on the borderline of being able to facilitate all athletes at present.
“It’s been quite difficult but not enough to make us stop or slow down. We can definitely take more challenges and we’re stronger than it needs to be to keep this going.
“We’re going to use this energy to expand and make this grow. It is difficult mainly with the equipment.
“Our athletes are developing really quickly. When we started the club, myself and my family funded the equipment required for the start-up.
“At the present time, we are on the edge. With the numbers we have and the equipment we have, we basically need more seats in the boats.
“We’re hoping that the upcoming sports capital grant will support us in continuing the expansion at the pace that we’re doing so far.”
The young athletes of the Donegal Town club have enjoyed a huge amount of success since its establishment last year.
In their first season, Northwest Rowing Club members reached the highest levels of junior rowing in Ireland.
These achievements include a gold medal at the prestigious Skibbereen Regatta – the first ever achieved by a Donegal rower.
As well as this, they’ve had an Irish Junior Champion title, multiple medals at national competitions and also had two athletes compete at Irish National Team Trials this year.
In order for the athletes to maintain their growth in the high-performance sport, the club have launched a GoFundMe page in order to fund new equipment for their members.
The club has stated that their fundraising goal will help to purchase a racing quadruple scull, two racing double sculls, two racing single sculls, eight pairs of racing oars, six indoor rowing machines and an equipment storage container.
The Donegal Town club is ambitious in its aims and objectives and this equipment would benefit their ability of helping the young rowers to reach these heights.