Magnificent Murtagh produces champion show in claiming World single sculls title
A season that was full of drama had its appropriate denouement in Shanghai at the weekend as Fiona Murtagh confirmed her status as one of Ireland’s greatest-ever rowers when crowned world champion in the women’s single sculls.
It saw the Moycullen woman add gold to the silvers she won at both the European Championships and Rowing World Cup in the Summer, but it wasn’t a racing season that was entirely plain sailing, as she had the misfortune to capsize in the single sculls final at the Irish Rowing Championships in July.
“This time last year I was in such a vulnerable space. If you told me that in 12 months’ time I would be a world champion, I would have been, like, ‘you’re lying’. I’m really proud of how I’ve overcome a lot and I really have to thank the people around me; my support network has been so strong,” Murtagh said after Sunday’s race.
She was beaten in those two summer races by UK rower, Lauren Henry, but she put to good use some lessons learned from those experieneces to finally ascend to the top step on the podium.
Henry showed in the European final in Lucerne that she has an exceptionally strong finish, outsprinting Murtagh to take gold, so the Galway woman – who only came to sculling in the last year – opted to go out strong from the start on Sunday, a move which just about paid off as she finished only three hundredths of a second in front of Henry.
“I had to put an absolute ocean between the two of us because it was going to come down to the line. I hit a bit of a wobble with 250 metres to go but I very quickly composed myself and gave it everything. Crossing the line I had no idea who had won. We were dead level. I looked over to the screen. My name popped up. I was in absolute shock,” she said.
Murtagh was part of the Women’s Four that claimed an historic bronze medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, marking Ireland’s first Olympic medal in women’s rowing, where she was joined in the Irish crew by fellow Galwegian, Aifric Keogh.
She won bronze in the Four at the 2020 Europeans followed by a silver at the same event a year later; and teamed up with Keogh in the Women’s Pair in 2023, finishing fourth at the World Rowing Championships and securing qualification for last year’s Paris Olympics, where they finished eighth in the Women’s Pair.
When Keogh announced her retirement from competitive rowing in January, the Ireland lead coach, Dominic Casey, suggested Murtagh switch from rowing as part of a crew to instead competing in the single sculls, and it is a move that has paid off in stunning fashion.
““The single has given me a confidence I never had before. You put it all out there. All week I’ve been quietly confident. I know if I can look after me and focus on me I’ll get down that track first. I knew it was going to be a game of inches, and it was,” she said.
Claregalway’s Siobhán McCrohan finished fourth in the A Final of the Lightweight Women’s Single Sculls; while Craughwell’s Emma Waters came third in the B Final of the Women’s Fours at her first major international regatta.
Pictured: Galway's Fiona Murtagh celebrates after winning gold in the Women's Single Sculls Final at the World Rowing Championships in Shanghai on Sunday. Photos: Benedict Tufnell/Sportsfile.