Women's double roar into final, McCarthy and Murtagh progress at World Rowing Championships

The Irish women's double sculls crew of Mags Cremen and Zoe Hyde impressed with victory in their semi-final

Reigning world champion Fiona Murtagh finished second in her heat at the World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam. Pic: Detlev Seyb/World Rowing

The Irish women's double sculls crew of Mags Cremen and Zoe Hyde roared into the final at the World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam with an impressive victory in their semi-final. 

Cork's Cremen and Kerry's Hyde finished in 7:09.19, 2.78 seconds ahead of Italy and 3.26 second ahead of third-placed Poland. Ireland qualified fastest overall. The Irish crew were third after 500m, had closed to barely trail leaders Poland by halfway, and then powered to the win over the second 1000m.

Switzerland won the first semi-final in 7:10.78 with Netherlands taking second and Canada third. Ireland will race in the final at 4:35pm on Friday. 

Fintan McCarthy progressed to the quarter-finals of the men’s single sculls with a second-place finish in his heat. The two-time Olympic lightweight double sculls champion finished 4.22 seconds behind American Samuel Melvin to claim one of the automatic qualifying spots. He finished tenth fastest overall.

"It's been a successful enough summer, so I'm just trying to see how I get on," said the Corkman, who is competing in his debut season in the openweight category.

"Really good training with the women's double. It looks like we're both in pretty good shape. Nice to get the first one out of the way."

Reigning world champion Fiona Murtagh also progressed to the quarter-finals of the women’s single sculls by finishing second in her heat. The Galway rower started the race slowly but had moved into the automatic qualifying places with 500m remaining.

In a tightly contested race, she finished in 8:01.18, just 0.20 seconds behind South African winner Paige Badenhorst and 0.53 ahead of Switzerland’s Aurelia-Maxima Katharina Janzen. Murtagh was fourth fastest overall.

The second heat was won by Dutch Olympic champion Karolien Florijn, while Great Britain’s reigning European champion Lauren Henry - who finished narrowly behind Murtagh at the 2025 championships - took the fourth heat. Olympic bronze medallist Viktorija Senkutė of Lithuania won the third heat.

Murtagh (12:15pm) and McCarthy (12:32pm) will compete in their quarter-finals on Friday. 

The women's pair of Imogen Magner and Natalie Long finished fifth in their semi-final, crossing the line in 7:41.74, nearly 21 seconds behind winners Romania. The Irish crew will race in the B final on Friday.