Fiona Murtagh claims silver for Ireland at European Rowing Championships
Fiona Murtagh's switch from the bigger boats to the lonelier single scull yielded immediate rewards as she took silver in Plovdiv, Bulgaria this morning.
Fintan McCarthy and Konan Pazzaia had taken bronze in the double yesterday.
The year after the Olympic Games is made for trying out new things, and the Galway woman can be happy with her switch from crew boats – she took Olympic silver in the four in Tokyo 2020 – to the single.
Her companion in the pair at Paris 2024, Aifric Keogh, retired and with encouragement from Ireland lead coach, Dominic Casey, Murtagh made the jump.
Britain's Lauren Henry made a similar switch, in her case from the quadruple, and come the final she had too much for the Galway woman.
Murtagh kept Henry honest. The start had been close, but by half way only these the two were in a battle for gold, with Murtagh performing well. Henry is smaller than the tall Galway woman but sculled sweetly to push away and win by 3.31 seconds.
'It's very, very special,' Henry said. 'I's still early days, but I wanted to come here and make a mark and make a name for myself, and I feel that I've done that.'
Murtagh's success in her new discipline, along with the creation of the Pazzaia-McCarthy crew, have been bright spots in a generally good campaign for Ireland at the Championships.
Not all the experiments by the new management made their mark.
The men's quadruple scull finished fifth in their B final (11th overall). While Ukraine won from the front, the new Ireland crew fought for a placing in the top three for much of the 2,000 metres, slipping back in the final third of the race.
The women's quadruple were fourth and last in their B final, 10th overall.
Casey was delighted with Murtagh's success. He constantly stresses how good all the athletes are. And the decision to let many of them finish exams left a window of just a few weeks when the newly-formed units could train together as crews.
There will be real anticipation as to how the reinvigorated team does come the World Cup in Lucerne from June 27 to 29.
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