Galway's Fiona Murtagh won bronze for Ireland in the single sculls in a photo-finish at the World Cup regatta in Seville.
In blisteringly hot conditions, single sculler Murtagh capped off the squad’s first World Rowing regatta of the season with a gutsy performance, claiming third position on the podium behind Great Britain and Lithuania. In Seville, the Galway woman surged past Roos de Jong of the Netherlands to take third. Ahead of them, Great Britain's Lauren Henry edged out Viktorija Senkute of Lithuania.
Last weekend's bronze medal adds to the gold medal Murtagh won in Shanghai at the 2025 World Rowing Championships last September, where she finished ahead of Henry. Murtagh only started out as a single sculler last season and is already a world champion and now bronze medal holder. She is going from strength to strength.
Murtagh's bronze was one of Rowing Ireland's three medals achieved in World Cup I. The women’s double of Mags Cremen and Zoe Hyde also took third, while lightweight sculler Izzy Clements raced to a silver the day before.
In the same race as Cremen and Hyde, their team-mates Sophia Young and Alison Bergin finished in a strong fifth place in their debut as a partnership. They were unlucky to be pipped by the Polish crew for fourth right on the finish line. The Women’s Four finished sixth in an A Final stacked with quality from the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain.
Completing his debut in the Men’s Open Single Sculls, lightweight double Olympic champion Fintan McCarthy led in the early stages of his hotly contested B Final. However, strong finishes from Portugal and Slovenia meant the Skibbereen RC rower had to settle for third place. The Men’s pair of Adam Murphy and Fionnán McQuillan-Tolan placed sixth against strong competition in their B Final.
