Silver medal for Fiona Murtagh at World Rowing Championships

30 August 2026; Fiona Murtagh of Ireland on her way to winning silver in the Women's Single Sculls Final A during the 2026 World Rowing Championships at Bosbaan in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Photo by Benedict Tufnell/Sportsfile

Defending champion Fiona Murtagh has taken silver in the women's single sculls at the World Championship in Amsterdam.

Galway's Murtagh won a titanic battle for second from Karolien Florijn of the Netherlands, with Britain's Lauren Henry taking the gold. 

Olympic champion Florijn and Aurelia-Maxima Janzen of Switzerland led from the start, and it took until well into the middle of the race for Henry to take charge.  

By 1,500m, Henry was well clear, with Florijn being worn down by Murtagh for the silver, the Irishwoman finishing in 07:18.04.

Henry is the first British woman to win the title, having finished behind Murtagh last year.

Murtagh suffered a rib injury after taking silver at World Cup III in Lucerne, so her preparation for this year's championships has been interrupted.

Afterwards, she told RTÉ Sport: "I'm really happy and proud of how I have grown throughout this competition," she told RTÉ Sport.

"I tried to downplay it (the injuries) quite a bit, but it’s really hard. I really want to be resilient, regardless of the challenges I faced I could grow from it.

"Was it an ideal race? No, but I really liked the last 750, I loved how I moved through that final sprint.

"I took a swing over to my right and I could see Florijn wasn’t out of sight. I knew I could do it. I just had to trust myself.

"I could feel that I was gaining metres and could feel her boat coming to mine."