Fiona Murtagh and Fintan McCarthy secure semi-final spots at World Rowing Championships

Murtagh and McCarthy will compete in the semi-finals on Saturday afternoon

Fintan McCarthy finished third in his single sculls quarter-final at the World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam. Pic:  Benedict Tufnell/Sportsfile

Fiona Murtagh and Fintan McCarthy progressed to the single sculls semi-finals at the World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam on Friday afternoon.

Reigning world champion Murtagh led her quarter-final from start to finish as she claimed the win in 7:20.80 ahead of Switzerland's Aurelia-Maxima Katharina Janzen, who was 0.91 seconds behind and Australia's Tara Rigney, a further 5.29 seconds back.

Great Britain's European champion Lauren Henry won the first quarter-final with Dutch Olympic champion Karolien Florijn in second and Brazil's Beatriz Tavares in third while Serbia's Jovana Arsic took the second quarter-final with USA's Lauren O'Connor the runner-up and South Africa's Paige Badenhorst in third. In the fourth quarter-final, Lithuania's Olympic bronze medallist Viktorija Senkute claimed the win with Ukraine's Kateryna Dudchenko taking second after passing Germany's Alexandra Foester. 

Two-time Olympic lightweight double sculls champion McCarthy continued his transition to the openweight category by securing a place in the semi-finals. The Corkman finished third in his quarter-final. 

McCarthy was third after 500m and held that position to the finish (6:51.28), as Germany's Olympic champion Oliver Zeidler claimed the win (6:46.48) and Switzerland's Kai Schaetzle (6:48.20) took second.

2025 World Championship bronze medallist Yauheni Zalaty won the first quarter-final ahead of Aleksandr Kovalskii and Bastian Secher. The third quarter-final was won by Jonas Slettemark Juel while world champion Stefanos Ntouskos was beaten to the runner-up spot by Bruno Cetraro. USA's Sam Melvin won the fourth quarter-final with Victor Marcelot in second and Mihai Chiruta in third.

The women's single sculls semi-finals get under way at 2:05pm on Saturday with the men's semi-finals starting at 2:19pm. 

The Irish women's double sculls crew of Mags Cremen and Zoe Hyde go in their final at 4:35pm on Friday.