Single scull a silver lining for crewless Fiona Murtagh

RTÉ News​

a day ago

Back in November, Fiona Murtagh put behind her a challenging few months to return to the National Rowing Centre in Cork.
More than three months had passed since the bitter disappointment of the Paris Olympics, and the Galway native was struggling to plot out her future.
Murtagh and Aifric Keogh – part of the women's four in Tokyo alongside Eimear Lambe and Emily Hegarty that swept to an unlikely bronze – travelled to France as serious medal contenders in the women's pair.
Podium finishers in every race that season, they could only manage a sixth-place semi-final finish. Having experienced such highs in Tokyo (Murtagh and Keogh became, and remain, the only Galway athletes to claim an Olympic medal), a combination of underperformance and the lack of a post-Games plan hit the 29-year-old hard.
Keogh retired and of the coaches that were involved in the Paris Games, only Dominic Casey remains, with Rowing Ireland yet to fill the vacancy left by high-performance director Antonio Maurogiovanni's departure.
"After Paris I took a break, I really wasn't sure what to do, I had nothing planned," Murtagh told RTÉ Sport.
"In hindsight, it was not a good idea. I really fell off a cliff. People were retiring, coaches were leaving. There was a lot of uncertainty in the air. I was a sweep rower (two hands on one oar, as opposed to sculling where each rower uses two oars). I was trying to think, 'where do I fit in?' 'Where do I belong in this organisation now?'"
Once the dust had finally settled on Paris, Murtagh began to plan ahead. Inevitably, she kept circling back to her sport.
"I knew myself I had so much more to give, I just didn't know how that was going to be done."
Enter Dominic Casey, Ireland's most successful rowing coach. It was his suggestion to try out the single-scull. Eased back into the boat, it was now a fresh challenge of working solo.
That first day back in November, it was a case of old habits dying hard. After the warm-up, she waited in the areas reserved for the fours and quads, the pairs and doubles; lining up where the singles took off from didn't enter her mind.
"After a few months off, you are on edge," she says. "Without thinking I just stood beside the pair, waiting for Aifric and Giuseppe (De Vita, high performance coach). It was that moment, 'they're not here'."
Those early months were a steep learning curve. The pace was "crawling" and old techniques had to be discarded; how she approached the catch (the oar entering the water) and moving through the leg drive may not seem massively different to the untrained eye. For Murtagh it was night and day.
In the past, Keogh had taken charge of steering in the pair, while as part of the four, Lambe looked after the calls. Now the responsibility landed squarely on her shoulders.
"Even though you know how to do them, it's about owning it," she says.
There were no goals set in those early days, just reassurance and guidance from Casey. The lack of pressure was a rare treat, the sole focus simply getting to grips with the solo adventure.
At the turn of the year, the winter labour was beginning to bear fruit. At her first trial she was second to Mags Cremen. For the final European trials, she was first past the finish line.
She went to the European Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, earlier this month, full of nerves and possibilities.
"I won my heat and it was instilling confidence in me throughout the regatta. I was more confident in my start, I always backed my middle. When I won the semi, I knew I was in with a chance."
Seven months after beginning her sculling journey in Cork, Murtagh was back on the podium.
"Throughout the last season, I never thought about winning at the European championships until I got there," she says.
"If you told me after Paris if I'd be sitting here, with a European silver in the single, I'd be like 'you're lying to me'."
She's not wedded to the idea of sculling in Los Angeles. It could pan out that way, but "you never know what Dominic has in mind".
The mental and physical demands will stand to her regardless, Murtagh feeling the fittest she has ever been.
This weekend she is in Switzerland, part of a strong Irish squad competing at the World Rowing Cup in Lucerne, the next chapter in her journey.
"I'm still learning," she says. "People laugh at me when I say I'm a novice. In the single. It's a good thing. I'm motivated to learn that skill.
"It's different. It's not me doing it for someone else, it's me doing it for me. There is a lot of self-growth and self-realisation to want to do that."