Thirteen sets of 2026 European medals were handed out on Saturday, with Germany topping the medal table and Britain slightly behind them. Most of the newly fledged champions got within a few seconds of the European Championship best times for their events — including the nowadays less competitive LW2x — and four new Euro quickest times were set in a nicely rising tailwind.
Germany’s three wins came courtesy of stellar men’s quads and PR2 mixed doubles performances, plus victory for their diminutive lightweight men’s pair, and three more minor medals. Britain had a golden forty minutes in late morning during which three of their fours in a row became European champions, while Italy had to wait to the end of the morning to claim gold for both lightweight doubles in under-subscribed events.
Romania usually cleans up at the Europeans, but came away with only four medals from what is usually their better finals session, the small-boats day. Even so, they were part of some fantastic races and claimed gold for both their men’s and women’s pairs, soon after Mihai Chiruta had staggered Greece’s Stefanos Ntouskos and the in-form Swiss sculler Kai Schaetzle to bag a centre spot for the M1x final out of lane six. The other men’s singles semi was the predictable Zeidler over Zalaty masterclass, involving Zeidler getting himself a new European best time, but it’s likely the AIN sculler is saving his biggest weapons for the final. Meanwhile Tristan Vandenbussche (BEL) claimed the last space by breaking Jonas Juel (NOR), and now looks like a real contender at the top level.
The two Romanian pairs needed grit and speed to stay ahead of closely chasing packs, Florian Lehaci and Stefan Berariu well up early on Lithuania then outlasting all the punches thrown by them and Italy, the hosts putting in an impressive final quarter to reduce the gap from silver to half a second. By contrast Simona Radis and her new partner Adriana Adam were effectively racing the ghost for much of the race, after seeing off a very challenging start from Italy, who were out for blood. Radis and Adam disposed neatly of Laura Meriano and Alice Codato by halfway before pulling neatly away from Czechia who came up into second, and bagged themselves a new European best time into the bargain.
“It’s a new team but a very very strong one,” said Radis afterwards. “Tomorrow we go in the eight and for the world championship we will do both. We have a lot of plans, we want to win both but we will have to work hard because there will be much much stronger teams than here.”
The AIN rowers, mostly from Belarus, are growing rapidly in confidence, and a Romanian-sized gap this weekend finally gave Tatsiana Klimovich and Alena Furman the chance to take a gold medal in the women’s doubles via a beautifully judged stalking race. They let Greece and Lithuania exhaust one another sparring for the early lead, and wound up from halfway to do a monster second thousand, carving through Germany before successfully overtaking the leaders from 650 metres to go. Greece’s Evangelia Anastasiadou and Dimitra Kontou, who are both former lightweights, lifted their sprint in the last 100 metres to claim silver.
“We are looking forward to when we can represent our country again,” said Furman. “It motivates us very much, and we hope that next year we will represent our country with a flag, with an anthem, like all athletes”. The regatta’s own anthem and flag were used to represent them this time.
“We don’t have many races in the open category,” said Anastasiadou, “and it’s totally different.” “I’m really happy we don’t have to weigh 57 kilos, it makes a huge difference. But we are happy and proud to show that we are competitive compared to heavier athletes, and I think we have a brilliant future.”
The men’s doubles final had a blanket start, but by halfway had sorted itself into two groups, with Serbia, Spain and Romania in the virtual medal positions and Croatia’s Martin and Valent Sinkovic showing the opposite of their heyday era form by falling off the pace after a good start. But perhaps inspired by high-rating Spanish duo Caetano Horta Pombo and Rodriguo Conde Romero, who harried Serbia the whole way, the Croatians managed to lift to 44-45 for most of the last 400 metres and came roaring back through Romania to claim bronze. Martin Mackovic and Nikolaj Pimenov (SRB) took a well-deserved gold by keeping the strokes long ahead of scurrying Spain.
“Our plan to start fast, and finish faster,” said Conde Romero. “This is the only plan for us”. “We attacked in the third 500m and pushed to our limit to the end,” added Horta Pombo, his new partner out of the former Under-23 team, who was standing on the senior podium for the first time. Both also used to row lightweight and would fit comfortably under the armpits of Mackovic and Pimenov.
For the Sinkovics, it was a validation that they do have speed at a competitive regatta, after they’d rebuilt confidence by winning Plovdiv where there were only a few crews with their speed taking part. “It was a good regatta,” said Valent. “We weren’t feeling the best in the boat but we did a good job and I’m proud of this, though we must definitely go a step further for the champs so we can fight for a medal”. They are now staying in the double for the world championships. “Technique was ok but it’s recovery time: three races in 24 hours and the heat is enormous,” complained Martin. “At our age we need this [recovery] more than most, I feel not to my 100% at this regatta.”
The Great British fours gold glut began with the latest incarnation of the para-four claiming their fifth consecutive European title (there was no para-fours competition last summer), and slicing nearly five seconds off their predecessors’ European best time from Bled in 2023 after being led early on by Italy. “We’re such a new crew, our progression has gone like that,” said reigning Paralympic champion Frankie Allen. “We were so happy with our piece yesterday, we thought we’d better just go for it. We rowed really well, we were expecting everyone to gun it out of the start, we just kept our heads in the boat and then just raced through them.” “We’ve been together for a good few months now and I’m really proud of our crew,” said Jonty Ridley, opening his British team career with a gold.
Fifteen minutes later the GB women’s four played a classic hand, leading out, extending in the third quarter and then holding off the assembled armies for another win. Romania uncharacteristically lost out on medals, caught napping by the AIN four while Britain managed to hoick their rate enough to hold off a late surge from Germany. “It didn’t feel cool as cucumbers, but it was so fun,” said GB stroke Holly Youd. “We didn’t know how it was going to go, we’ve approached rowing in a completely different way since Lucerne, and it seems to be working. We switched our order round a bit, had a different race plan, and focused on some different technical bits, pretty much everything we could do.”
As they were lining up for their medals it was the turn of the men’s four, an “over-23” group who are snapping at the heels of the senior four and deserved their turn in the limelight. Having changed order and one crew member since losing the Henley final, they dominated the final in confident style, unfussed and without nerves as Romania’s and Germany’s final sprints to close the gap in the last few hundred metres failed to catch them. They sliced one second off the European championships best time and, having graduated from their US universities, will be ready to join the GB team full-time this winter.
