Lightweight Olympic gold medallist Fintan McCarthy makes mark at Europeans after switch to heavyweight

Fiona Murtagh, also an Olympic medallist, won her heat in her new discipline of single sculling in what was generally a good day for day for Ireland crews.

McCarthy and Pazzaia took second in their heat, 1.46 seconds behind Poland. On Friday, the semi-final for McCarthy’s new crew will be another big test, as they face Romania, who set the fastest time in the heats. Pazzaia, a Swiss who has an Irish mother, has competed successfully for Ireland at underage level.

Lightweight rowing is no longer an Olympic discipline, and McCarthy and Paul O’Donovan, who is not competing in Plovdiv, have chosen to compete as heavyweights.

Murtagh’s initial venture into the world of single sculling was certainly not without dangers. The Galway woman (29) took bronze at Tokyo 2020 in a four and was eighth in a pair at Paris 2024. However, out on her own for the first time, she was up against two talented ‘Independent Neutral Athletes’ – a Russian and a Belarussian – along with the German Alexandra Foester. Just two would qualify directly for the semi-finals.

Foester led early on, but the tall Murtagh powered into the lead coming up to 900 metres and did not relinquish it. It proved a wise move, as Tatisana Klimovich (formerly Belarussia) and Kira Iunchenko (who has competed for Russia), moved past Foester to finish second and third.

Dominic Casey, the interim head of Irish international rowing, has experimented across the board with forming new crews. He warned that instant success was unlikely in this first year of the Olympiad. For all that, just one crew – the new women’s quadruple – does not remain in the medal hunt in Plovdiv after the first day.

Mags Cremen, who, like McCarthy, was stepping up from lightweight rowing, and Zoe Hyde also took a solid second in their heat of the women’s double and go directly to Saturday’s A Final.

The men’s pair had to wait on the result of other heats to see whether they had qualified. The new combination of Ross Corrigan and Daire Lynch, a bronze medallist in Paris in the double, finished fourth in the first of three heats. Only the top two from each of three heats qualified directly for semi-finals. Since repechages have been dispensed with by World Rowing, the Irish crew faced dropping into the C Final if they were not amongst the six fastest losers – but they made it. Austria and Turkey missed out.

It was a similar story for the Ireland men’s quadruple. The combination of Andrew Sheehan, Adam Murphy, Ronan Byrne and Olympic medallist Philip Doyle is novel. Two crews, in this case the Netherlands and Croatia, set the pace, and Ireland could not match it. They finished fourth, but made it through to the semi-finals as one of the fastest which did not qualify directly.

However, the new Ireland women’s quadruple found the going too tough in their heat. France and Britain fought it out at the head of the field and qualified directly for the A Final. The Ireland crew of Claire Feerick, Natalie Long, Aisling Hayes and Alison Bergin took fifth and will compete in the B Final.

The morning had started very well for the Ireland team, with good results in non-Olympic events. Izzy Clements, who comes from Scotland but qualifies for Ireland through her mother, had a fine Ireland debut, taking second in a preliminary race in the lightweight single. Jake McCarthy then matched that placing in the men’s lightweight single heat, qualifying directly for the final.

Like his twin, Fintan, he can be pleased with his day.

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