Murtagh set for World Cup Regatta semi-final
Moycullen woman is the defending World Single Sculls (W1x) champion
Fiona Murtagh will be back on the water in Seville just after 9am Irish time this morning (Saturday) as she defends her world title in the women's single sculls as the World Cup Regatta in southern Spain.
The Moycullen woman dominated her heat yesterday, breezing home in a time of 7mins 37.33secs, two and a half seconds ahead of Germany's Alexandra Foester who finished second.
It was the third fastest of the four heats with her time of bettered by Lauren Henry of Britain, who won heat four (7mins 34.06secs); and heat 2 winner, Viktorija Senkute of Lithuania (7mins 36.90secs). Henry will line-up alongside Murtagh in the first of this morning's semi-finals.
Emma Fagan of the University of Galway Boat Club is part of the Irish Women’s Four (W4-) crew that will be rowing for gold on Sunday morning after they finished second in their heat yesterday.
Fagan is joined in the boat by Natalie Long (Lee Valley Rowing Club), Claire Feerick (Oxford Brookes & Neptune Rowing Club), and Imogen Magner (Lee Valley Rowing Club).
They came home in a time of 6mins 51.60secs in the first semi-final, more than 14 seconds behind a Dutch crew that finished in a time of 6mins 37.24secs. That A final is at 9.57am on Sunday.
College clubmate, Martin O'Grady, is in C Final action this morning (8.25am) after they finished just outside the semi-final qualification spots in their Men's Quad Sculls heat yesterday, coming home fourth in heat four, just seven seconds behind winners, Croatia.
He is joined in the boat by Konan Pazzaia (Queen’s University Belfast Boat Club), Andrew Sheehan (UCC RC/Lee RC), and Ryan Spelman (Oxford Brookes & St Michael’s Rowing Club).
Meanwhile, Rowing Ireland has announced that this weekend's Galway Regatta, which was due to get underway on the Corrib this morning, has been cancelled due to high winds being forecast.