Zoe Hyde and Margaret Cremen won gold in the women\u2019s double sculls at the World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam<\/a>, while Fiona Murtagh also brought home silver in the women\u2019s single sculls.<\/p>\nTheir friends and family rowed in at Cork Airport last night to celebrate the historic achievements.<\/p>\n
Declan Cremen, father of Margaret, said he was “very, very proud” of his daughter’s accomplishment.<\/p>\n
“It’s just a well-deserved welcome back for her. She’s had a great year and worked very hard for us, both herself and Zoe are just tremendous. They never give up,” he said.<\/p>\n
Deirdre Leahy is a friend of Zoe Hyde and a member of the Killorglin Rowing Club, Co Kerry.<\/p>\n
“It’s amazing. It’s such a fantastic achievement and so delighted to have her here with her medal and a dream come true,” she said.<\/p>\n
Zoe Hyde’s mother, Fiona, said it has been a tumultuous journey for the now world champion.<\/p>\n
“I’m very proud. Zoe started rowing at 13. There’s been a lot of downs, many more downs than ups, but the ups outweigh the downs, so it’s been brilliant,” she said.<\/p>\n
Mark Hyde, Zoe’s father, said watching the race was emotional.<\/p>\n
“It was such a wonderful race and they did so well and I’m really proud of them. I cried at the end,” he said.<\/p>\n
Hyde and Cremen row for Tralee Rowing Club in Co Kerry and Lee Rowing Club in Co Cork, respectively.<\/p>\n
Their World Championship gold capped a remarkable week for Irish rowing, with Cremen also taking home silver alongside Konan Pazzaia in the mixed double sculls.<\/p>\n
Fiona Murtagh also claimed silver in the women’s single sculls.<\/p>\n
“We’re still on cloud nine, I can’t believe this is happening,” Hyde said.<\/p>\n
“Usually, we come back and we’re just trying to get a taxi, so this is unbelievable to have such a warm welcome, and we’re grateful.”<\/p>\n
Hyde said the pair have been having “pinch me” moments since the victory.<\/p>\n
“We haven’t been able to sleep after it … it’s been our lifetime dream, so to be able to achieve it is surreal,” she added.<\/p>\n
Cremen said seeing their families and friends dressed in club gear to greet them has been “unbelievable”.<\/p>\n
“It just means so much because they’ve just supported us down through all of the years and it’s just so nice to celebrate this moment with them … it’s going to take a while to sink in, but I’m just so proud of us really,” she said.<\/p>\n
While celebrations are just beginning, attention now turns to next year’s World Championships in Lucerne, Switzerland where Olympic qualification will be on the line.<\/p>\n
That competition is firmly in the sights of women’s single scull silver medallist Fiona Murtagh.<\/p>\n
“From the day that we first learned to pick up an oar to moments like this … it’s been a long journey and it takes a village and it’s great that we were able to bring this back for everyone else and it’s so exciting,” Murtagh said.<\/p>\n
“It’s a lot to look forward to right now for the next two years. The stakes are being raised again even further, but we’re in a really good place right now, so it’s exciting,” she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland’s newest world champions arrived home to a rousing welcome in Co Cork last night. Zoe Hyde and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-611154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}