UCD and Trinity battle in thrilling Colours Boat Races on the Liffey

UCD Senior Men’s Eight delivered a dominant performance to defeat Trinity in this year’s Gannon Cup on Saturday evening (22nd), securing their fourth consecutive victory in the prestigious rowing event.

The Gannon Cup is part of the annual Colours Boat Races, a historic rowing competition between University College Dublin (UCD) and Trinity College Dublin (TCD).

The racecourse runs through the City Centre on the River Liffey, spanning from O’Connell Bridge to Victoria Quay.

With their latest triumph, UCD’s Senior Men have now leveled the all-time Gannon Cup series at 37 wins each. UCD took an early lead and maintained their dominance throughout the race, finishing well ahead of their Trinity rivals.

In the Corcoran Cup, UCD Senior Women’s Eight also claimed their fourth successive victory, finishing four lengths ahead of Trinity.

Although both crews remained close at the start, UCD surged ahead in the latter half of the race to maintain control and secure the win.

Trinity enjoyed success in the novice categories, winning the Dan Quinn Shield for Novice Men’s Eights for the fifth year in a row.

They established an early lead and extended it to three lengths by the finish.

Trinity also took home the Sally Moorhead Trophy for Women’s Novice Eights in dramatic fashion.

UCD led for most of the race, but Trinity mounted a late charge in the final 400 metres, overtaking UCD to win by half a length.

This year’s Colours Boat Races marked the 75th edition of the Gannon Cup for Senior Men’s Eights and the 44th edition of the Corcoran Cup for Senior Women’s Eights.

Olympic bronze medalist Daire Lynch rowed in the 7 seat for UCD’s winning Senior Men’s crew.

The 26-year-old from Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, won bronze for Ireland in the Men’s Double Sculls alongside Philip Doyle at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Lynch, who previously studied economics at Yale University, is now studying medicine at UCD while remaining part of the Irish rowing squad.

The Colours Boat Races is an annual event featuring four head-to-head races between UCD and Trinity crews.

The 2-kilometre course runs upstream through Dublin, passing under eight bridges from O’Connell Bridge to Victoria Quay.

The Gannon Cup has been contested since 1947, with only four interruptions—two in the 1950s (1957 and 1958) and two during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020 and 2021).

UCD and Trinity are now tied with 37 victories each, with one dead heat recorded in 1950.

The Corcoran Cup began as a Senior Women’s Coxed Four event before transitioning to an Eights race in 1993.

UCD has now claimed 27 wins, while Trinity has 17.

The Colours Boat Races tradition dates back to 1947, when the Gannon Cup was first introduced in memory of UCD Boat Club Captain Ciaran Gannon, who lost his life in 1944 while serving with the Royal Army Medical Corps in Burma.

Over time, the competition expanded to include the Corcoran Cup in 1980, the Dan Quinn Shield for Novice Men’s Eights in 2004, and the Sally Moorhead Trophy for Novice Women’s Eights in 2005.