Following a thrilling 2025 season in Irish rowing post Paris Olympic Games, we once again return to the National Rowing Centre in Cork for the start of the 2025/26 selection trials. A strong entry of twenty-two men will take to the water on Saturday to lay down their cards and contend alongside several senior team members racing the three-kilometre course.
Fintan McCarthy – Skibbereen RC
Ranked number one on a recent Row2k international athlete ranking, two-time Olympic champion Fintan McCarthy showed no issues with moving up into the heavyweight division, culminating in European and World bronze medals in the men’s double sculls before an emphatic win with fellow former lightweight Mags Cremen in the new event of the mixed doubles at the 2025 World Championships. He capped off the season with a quick spin down the iconic Head of the Charles course to win the Men’s Championship Doubles with Phil Doyle before setting a course record with Doyle, Konan Pazzaia and Daire Lynch en route to victory in the Men’s Quads. With Doyle absent from this trial, McCarthy will be going solo and look to claim top spot once again, continuing to build momentum towards the 2026 season.
Konan Pazzaia – Queen’s Belfast
The European bronze medallist with McCarthy, Pazzaia also won bronze in the same lineup at the World Rowing Cup in Lucerne. He rounded off the season with a 14th-place finish in the Men’s Singles at the World Rowing Championships and a seventh-place finish in the single at the Head of the Charles Regatta before victory in the Men’s Quads the following day. He was also part of the quad containing McCarthy, Olympic bronze medallist Daire Lynch, and two-time Olympic champion and silver medallist Paul O’Donovan, which defeated a Dutch national crew at Henley Royal Regatta before falling just short of the final in the Queen Mother Challenge Cup against the potent Great Britain combination.
Andrew Sheehan and Adam Murphy – University College Cork
The stroke and three of the Irish quad, Sheehan and Murphy, will look to start strong for 2026, having ended their World Rowing Championships not as they would have liked, finishing in the C final. Andrew Sheehan is a 2023 World U23 silver medallist in the single and won bronze alongside Murphy at the 2022 World Rowing U23 Championships in the coxless four. Both men have been balancing academics alongside their training so far this season and will hope to lay down a good benchmark for the season ahead.
Brian Colsh, Donagh Claffey and Martin O’Grady – University of Galway
Sligoman Brian Colsh is the number one sculler from the University of Galway, but the busy schedule of an accounting degree may have reduced the time he has spent in the single leading up to this trial. The two man of the Men’s quad with Sheehan and Murphy last season, Colsh will want to push on into 2026 with the hopes of making a crew for Los Angeles 2028 as the end goal, having shown promise as an U23 winning two World Championships bronze medals in 2022 and 2024, alongside being World U23 Champion in 2023 with Konan Pazzaia in the Men’s Doubles.
Also following that path are Colsh’s clubmates Donagh Claffey and Martin O’Grady, who secured a bronze medal in the same boat class at this year’s renewal of the World Rowing U23 Championships. Both men are now looking to prove they can make the step up to Senior level this season with a good performance this weekend.
Other Notable Mentions
Former Irish international Fionnán McQuillan-Tolan makes his return to the trialling scene, having stepped away from the squad in 2023 and enjoyed domestic success with Cork Boat Club, culminating in several Irish Championship titles. Tokyo Olympian Ronan Byrne, who has just started a career with the Irish Army, will look to see how his winter speed is faring post Shanghai, whilst the 2024 Dublin Sculling Ladder and 2025 Cork Sculling Ladder winners Tom Stevens and Aaron Hurley, respectively, both from Commercial RC, will look to see who they feature against those of the High-Performance squad.
Predictions
I would expect Fintan McCarthy to come away as the fastest sculler on Saturday, but it will be a close contest behind him for the other placings. Pazzaia would be a likely contender for second place, and third could be a showdown between Sheehan, Murphy and the University of Galway scullers, depending on who has managed to balance academics with sculling time.
