Nine Irish crews will compete at the 2026 World Rowing Championships as the High Performance programme takes an important step towards Olympic qualification.

Ireland has sent 24 athletes across nine boat classes to the 2026 World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam, which begin today Monday, 24 August and continue until Sunday, 30 August.

The championships represent the most demanding examination of the international season and an important staging post on Ireland’s journey towards the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. With Olympic qualification beginning at the 2027 World Championships in Lucerne, Amsterdam offers the Irish team an opportunity to discover precisely where it stands against the strongest rowing nations in the world.

This is a substantial Irish entry, comprising four men’s boats and five women’s boats. It is also a team selected with a clear purpose. Several new combinations will be given their first opportunity to race together at World Championship level, allowing athletes to prove themselves and the Irish leadership team to assess where the programme’s greatest potential lies.

Some crews arrive with an established body of work behind them. Ross Corrigan and Nathan Timoney continue their partnership in the men’s pair, Imogen Magner and Natalie Long in the women’s pair while Zoë Hyde and Margaret Cremen renew a women’s double combination that medalled at World Cup 1.

Elsewhere, Amsterdam will provide a first championship measure for boats assembled more recently. Fionnán McQuillan-Tolan, Adam Murphy, James Doran and Jack Dorney contest the men’s four, while Claire Feerick, Aisling Hayes, Emma Waters and Emma Fagan form the women’s four.

The women’s quadruple sculls bring together previous medal winning athletes Emily Hegarty, Sophia Young, Alison Bergin and Isobel Clements into a new combination. It is an intriguing blend of athletes at different points in their international careers, now asked to discover how quickly individual quality can be forged into a crew capable of competing on the world stage.

Martin O’Grady, Ryan Spelman, Andrew Sheehan and Konan Pazzaia return in the men’s quadruple sculls, having gained valuable international racing experience together earlier in the season.

The two single scullers arrive in Amsterdam carrying very different challenges. World Champion Fiona Murtagh represents Ireland in the women’s single having continued her medal winning form in World Cup I and III, while two-time Olympic lightweight champion Fintan McCarthy continues his move into open-weight competition in the men’s single.

McCarthy is one of three athletes in the team adapting to the removal of lightweight rowing from the Olympic programme. Cremen will race in the women’s and mixed doubles and Clements in the women’s quad, each pursuing a different route through one of the most significant competitive transitions in modern rowing.

For Rowing Ireland Performance Director Niall O’Carroll, the championships are not about placing medal expectations upon crews still being developed. The standard being asked of every athlete is more immediate and more controllable: to produce the best racing of which they are currently capable.

“We believe we are sending a strong Irish team to Amsterdam, but medals are not the focus we are placing on this group. Our only ask is that every crew delivers the best racing it is capable of producing.

“Several of these boats are new combinations, brought together deliberately to give athletes the opportunity to prove themselves at the highest level. They are not finished articles, and Amsterdam will give us an honest measure of where they stand against the best crews in the world.

“That information will be enormously valuable. Olympic qualification at the 2027 World Championships in Lucerne is now coming clearly into view, and this week will help us understand what is working, where the gaps remain and where our strongest opportunities may lie.”

The opening Irish races take place this afternoon, as the women’s pair, men’s pair and women’s double begin their campaigns. The fours and quadruple sculls follow tomorrow, Tuesday, with Murtagh and McCarthy taking to the water for the single sculls heats on Wednesday.

Ireland team

  • Men’s Single Sculls: Fintan McCarthy
  • Men’s Pair: Ross Corrigan, Nathan Timoney
  • Men’s Four: Fionnán McQuillan-Tolan, Adam Murphy, James Doran, Jack Dorney
  • Men’s Quadruple Sculls: Martin O’Grady, Ryan Spelman, Andrew Sheehan, Konan Pazzaia
  • Women’s Single Sculls: Fiona Murtagh
  • Women’s Pair: Imogen Magner, Natalie Long
  • Women’s Double Sculls: Zoë Hyde, Margaret “Mags” Cremen
  • Women’s Four: Claire Feerick, Aisling Hayes, Emma Waters, Emma Fagan
  • Women’s Quadruple Sculls: Emily Hegarty, Sophia Young, Alison Bergin, Isobel “Izzy” Clements

Racing will be streamed live on World Rowing here where results will also be available.