Another historic feat for Trinity College Dublin defending the IUSA college varsities title in Carlingford after 3 days of intense racing. Against the back drop of sunny Carlingford, TCD 2 claimed the IUSA intervarsity title after a nail biting best of 5 final against TCD 1 that came down to the last race.
The event, ran by Trinity College, was overseen by R.O David Bolger and aided by a host of volunteers from Carlingford Sailing club as well as umpires from around Ireland and England.
The event was raced in a round robin format before moving to a semi-final round as well as a finals round. TCD 2 finished the round robin in 3rd facing the strong UCD 1st team in 2nd , hot off a win at the IUSA northerns in Portrush. After losing the first race in the best of 3 semi-final, TCD 2 claimed the next two races to progress to the final while TCD 1 beat Queens University Belfast 2-0 after finishing the round robin in 1st on the other side of the semi final bracket to progress to the Grand finale.
Race 1 of the final saw a photo finish where in depth video review had to be undertaken in order to decide the winner, which ended up being TCD 2. The next race was claimed commandingly by TCD 1 after a textbook start. Race 3 was taken by TCD 2 after a lengthy on the water conversation with umpires after a black flag was raised due to a rule breaking incident at mark 2. Race 4 was then taken by TCD 1 after another flying start leaving the final race to determine the intervarsity champion.
This tit for tat sequence ended in TCD 2’s favour after an invigorating final race as the team of Oisin Hughes, May McGlew, Rusell Bolger, Becky Lowney, Max Cantwell and Ciara Woodard claimed the title as 2025/26 varsities champions.
