OLYMPIC STAR FINTAN MCCARTHY opened his bid to become a three-time European rowing champion as he safely booked his place in the double sculls semi-finals with team-mate Konan Pazzaia.

With regular partner Paul O’Donovan sitting out this week’s championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, McCarthy and Pazzaia finished second in Thursday morning’s heavyweight heat.

They’ll return to action on Friday morning when they will race in the first semi-final at 8.42am, where they’ll be up against reigning European and Olympic champions Andrei Cornea and Florian Enache of Romania.

Meanwhile, three Irish boats will be going for gold on Saturday after they safely negotiated their opening races on Thursday morning.

On her senior international debut, Izzy Clements ensured a strong lane draw for the final of the lightweight women’s single sculls as she finished second to Lara Tiefenthaler of Austria in the preliminary race.

Jake McCarthy, twin brother of Fintan, was second behind Fabio Kress of Germany in his lightweight men’s single sculls heat, and will line up in lane five in Saturday’s final.

And in the women’s double heats, Mags Cremen — who won individual lightweight silver at last year’s Europeans — and Zoe Hyde finished second behind familiar foes in Dimitra Kontou and Zoi Fitsiou of Greece to book their final place.

Ross Corrigan and Daire Lynch will return to the water on Friday morning (8.32am) for the semi-finals of the men’s pair after qualifying from their heat in fourth place.

In their first-ever attempt at the Women’s quadruple sculls, the Irish team of Alison Bergin, Aisling Hayes, Natalie Long and Claire Feerick qualified for the B final on Saturday (7.30am). 

Soon after, the men’s quadruple sculls qualified for their semi-final after finishing fourth, the team being Philip Doyle, Ronan Byrne, Adam Murphy and Andrew Sheehan.

Fiona Murtagh has qualified for her semi-final, winning her heat in the W1x, which takes place tomorrow.