Another big day of racing in Belgrade, Serbia with seven crews from Ireland taking to the water for day two of the 2023 World Rowing Championships.

The women’s pair of Fiona Murtagh (University of Galway BC) and Aifric Keogh (Dublin University Ladies BC) had a good start to their World Championship campaign this morning in their heat. Finishing in second place they are into tomorrow’s repechage as it was just one boat to progress to the A/B Semi. Winners of the heat, Veronique Meester and Ymkje Clevering from the Netherlands won silver at Europeans earlier this year and were part of the Dutch four that won silver at the Tokyo Olympics.

Corks Margaret Cremen and Aoife Casey comfortably made it through to the A/B Semi of the lightweight women’s double. With two crews to go directly into the Semis it was Ireland and Romania that broke away from the rest of the field shortly after the halfway mark. Romania’s Ionela Cozmiuc and Mariana-Laura Dumitru won silver in this event back in July so Ireland are where they want to be, racing them to the line finishing just .38 of a second behind them.

A win for Alison Bergin (Fermoy RC) and Zoe Hyde (Killorglin RC) sees them into the A/B Semi for the women’s double. In a competitive race, the top three crews were less than two second apart coming into the final 500m with only two to get direct progression to the semi. Ireland were the fastest boat on the water for the second half of the race and it was enough to put them ahead of Lithuania to take that first place position. They’re up next on Thursday for the A/B Semi, where progression to the A Final will secure a definite place in Paris 2024.

The women’s four combination of Eimear Lambe, Sanita Puspure, Imogen Magner and Natalie Long raced for the first time this morning. Sitting in third place from the start Ireland held their position, doing enough to move straight through to the A/B Semi. Great Britain, the reigning World Champions, finished in first place with Australia, Tokyo 2020 champions, coming in behind them. Both crews medalled at the recent World Cup taking home silver and bronze respectively.

John Kearney, Jack Dorney, Adam Murphy and Fionnán McQuillan-Tolan are into the repechage after a sixth place finish in the heat of the men’s four. They will race again tomorrow against Denmark, Ukraine, Romania and Germany with three to go through to the A/B Semi.

The men’s quad of Brian Colsh, Andrew Sheehan, Ronan Byrne and Konan Pazzaia finished sixth in their heat sending them into the repechage. This is the first time that Ireland have had a heavyweight men’s quad compete at a World Championships with the quad only being raced four times between 2004 and 2007 at World Cups. Three of the four rowers just recently raced and medalled at the U23 World Championships, Colsh and Pazzaia winning gold in the double and Sheehan winning silver in the single. They race the repechage tomorrow where they face Czechia, Lithuania, Norway, Australia and the USA with three boats to make the Semi.

It’s into the quarterfinals for Skibbereen lightweight sculler Jake McCarthy after a win in his repechage. McCarthy was positioned in second place throughout the race but moved into first place in the final quarter ahead of the New Zealand sculler Finlay Hamill. With two to qualify for the quarterfinals Ireland was able to easy up coming into the line with his fate secured.

Follow the Racing

All races will be live streamed on the World Rowing website HERE. Follow the Rowing Ireland social media for live updates on results.

Day 2 Results

  • W2- Heat 2nd -> Repechage
  • LW2x Heat 2nd -> A/B Semi
  • W2x Heat 1st -> A/B Semi
  • W4- Heat 3rd -> A/B Semi
  • M4- Heat 6th -> Repechage
  • M4x Heat 6th -> Repechage
  • LM1x Repechage 1st -> Quarterfinal

Tuesday Schedule (IST)

  • 9:30am – PR2 Mix2x Heat
  • 10:40am – W2- Repechage
  • 11:15am – M4- Repechage
  • 11:36am – M4x Repechage