The first serious test of the 2026 pecking order arrives this weekend at La Cartuja High Performance Center in Seville, where 499 athletes from 37 nations will race across 215 crews. Plenty has changed since the 2025 World Championships in Shanghai. Seville should show who has made the most of their winter training and who is still finding form.
Photo Stefanos Ntouskos of Greece
Men’s Single Sculls: four headline contenders
The men’s single field is among the strongest in Seville. Paris Olympic champion, three-time world champion and three-time European champion Oliver Zeidler of Germany returns to the international circuit as the man to beat. Last season Zeidler skipped the world cup series to focus on academic study, but he has an impressive record at world cup openers; he has always reached the podium, winning gold four out of five times.
In February, Zeidler set a new 2km indoor world record of 5:34.7, only for Dutchman Simon van Dorp to lower it again the following month (5:33.4). Reigning world champion Stefanos Ntouskos of Greece, a former lightweight who dominated in Shanghai, will be right alongside the German sculler. Ntouskos typically performs best in choppy conditions and hot weather. The Paris Olympic silver medallist Yauheni Zalaty, racing as a neutral athlete (AIN), adds European-champion form and world bronze to the mix.
“height and size is not all it’s cracked up to be”
Fintan McCarthy
Then there is Fintan McCarthy. The Irishman, an Olympic and world champion in the lightweight men’s double, debuts in the openweight single after two Olympiads in the LM2x. It is one of the boldest class switches in the field, and Seville will offer the first measure of where he sits against established single scullers. McCarthy has struggled with a recent back injury, but last season he made stellar progress as an openweight, consistently medalling in the men’s double.
“It’s been a lot of learning and it feels like I’ve got a new lease of life in the sport in general,” McCarthy told Cathal Dennehy of The Irish Examiner. “The height and size is not all it’s cracked up to be in rowing. We’ve really dug into the biomechanics of things, the physiology, just trying to maximise that for our size.”
Photo Fiona Murtagh of Ireland
Women’s Single Sculls: three standout contenders
Three women arrive with different claims to the top step of the women’s single sculls podium. Olympic champion Karolien Florijn of the Netherlands returns to international scene for the first time since Paris, having sat out 2025 entirely. Ireland’s two-time Olympian, Fiona Murtagh has blazed a trail since switching from sweep to sculling after her Paris W2- partner retired. Murtagh, the reigning world champion, beat Great Britain’s Lauren Henry by just 0.03 seconds in Shanghai.
Unbeaten until the Shanghai final, Olympic W4x champion Henry enjoyed a flawless start to her debut season in the women’s single last year, coming within three seconds of the World Best Time at the 2025 European Championships. She won gold at both World Rowing Cups in 2025.
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The recent form of Florijn, Murtagh, and Henry point in different directions which makes Seville an important early marker.
Honourable mentions go to the Lithuanian Olympic bronze medallist Viktoria Senkute, who threatened the W1x podium throughout 2025, and Australia’s Tara Rigney, the former World Cup gold medallist returns to the international circuit after finishing fourth in Paris.
With such a deep and competitive lineup even Olympians like Germany’s Alexandra Foester and France’s Emma Lunatti might be hard-pressed to make the final.
Photo Lauren Henry of Great Britain
Dutch depth and reshuffling
The Netherlands are fielding experienced crews and new combinations across multiple boat classes. Beyond Florijn, world double sculls champions Roos de Jong and Benthe Boonstra race in the women’s single sculls in Seville. Simon van Dorp, the Paris Olympic bronze medallist in the men’s single, has moved into the M2x alongside Melvin Twellaar. And Marieke Keijser makes her return to flat-water competition almost five years after winning lightweight women’s double sculls bronze at the Tokyo Olympics. Keijser joins 2025 W4x world champion Margot Leeuwenburgh to form a new-look women’s double.
Spain on home water
The host nation’s strongest medal prospect may be the men’s pair of Jaime Canalejo and Javier Garcia, racing on the Guadalquivir in front of a home crowd. Spain will be well represented across several boat classes.
Racing runs from 29 to 31 May. By Sunday evening, we will have a better read on the race-ready champions, returning athletes and new-look combinations heading into the summer season. Vamos Sevilla!
