Day five at the 2025 World Rowing Championships, in Shanghai, China. The first Olympic-class finals crowned a busy day at Dianshan Lake, starting with a heats and semis morning then finishing with medal races. Boy was it hot: even the local volunteers were exhausted, so hats off to all athletes who steamed on the burning lake. On the plus side the threatened thunderstorms drifted off to a different part of China, leaving the host nation able to celebrate two welcome (but non-Olympic) gold medals as a suitable present for the event sponsors.

Romania’s W2- stars Maria Rusu and Simona Radis left nothing to chance, speeding away from the blocks to balk France, an astonishingly fearless and untested new partnership, who tried to upset them. The US, Serbia and Britain dropped away early on, leaving Italy comfortably in third whilst the French pair did the best to hold onto Romania. France gave it another very good try at halfway but Romania fought them off without fuss, and meanwhile the US had recovered beautifully from their early dip in form, catching up and passing Italy to the delight of the grandstand which yelled the Yanks home to a bronze medal.

“I enjoyed the result and am grateful for it because it was a year with a lot of injuries and illness,” said Radis. “These problems made us stronger and we did the goal. For us it’s a great day”. “We began the pair in August,” said Hezekia Peron (FRA), “and then the French [crew] it marched very good. The result was a lot of pleasure during all the race”.

If you’d bet on the men’s pairs, your choice might well have been Romania, the two Florins, Lehaci and Arteni, having led two of the three early regattas, with years of experience between them. The fly in that ointment was Kiwi-flavoured, Ben Taylor and Ollie Welch having won at the only regatta the Romanians didn’t attend, Varese. Welch is a bit of a prodigy, having made his senior debut only this year after clocking a world best time at the under-23s, but the way they took immediate hold of the lead was a lesson in how to beat the ever-resourceful Romanians.

“We had such a bullet-proof rhythm through the middle, we were able to keep pushing out,” said Welch. “We knew we’d have to have a very strong middle k, we didn’t want to get into a sprint with the Romanians. We said to believe in ourselves so much that even if it was almost a delusional amount of self-belief, that’s what really made us believe we could win it. We never took it for granted, just kept chipping away until we were far enough in front that we had it in the bag.” Behind Romania the Swiss grabbed bronze ahead of the usually dangerous Spain.

For the quads, the two new world champion crews each of whom led the whole way down the course were the Dutch women and the Italian men, both masters of high rate fluidity. “I know our start is good, so I thought that was our only chance to take a lead,” said diminutive Dutch stroke Tessa Dullemanns after her crew got revenge on half the British quad which beat her former line-up for the last two seasons. “We had a lot of trust in each other that we could just keep on going, and that’s just what we did today. I had a lot of interviews (after losing) at the Olympics, and I just thought ‘I cannot leave anything behind, just push harder’. I started studying civil engineering this year and it was really tough, but this is our first world championships together.” Germany got a well-deserved bronze medal behind the British after accelerating to hold back a last-minute dash to the line by Romania.

“We spoke a lot about what we would and wouldn’t be happy with, we’ve had an irregularly short season for a crew,” said GBR anchor Lola Anderson. “We’ve had injury and illness that’s knocked us from staying together. But I think we did everything we could, everything we wanted to do in a race like today, and then silver is a really good bonus on top.” For bow Sarah McKay it added a debut world champs medal to the gold from the European championships, in her first season. “I can’t believe I’m here really,” she said. “Phenomenal, what a great race, and what great opponents to lose to. But we’re greedy, we want the gold and we’ll be back.”

The men’s quads are currently ruled by the British, the Poles and the Italians in the absence of a top Dutch men’s quad since the Paris victors the Netherlands crumbled away to a mix of retirement and sweep rowing. In Plovdiv and Lucerne the Brits had won, in Varese the Italians held sway, but Poland was ever-dangerous and certainly ready to mop up any mistakes the others made. The key to the race was Italy’s rate and the gamble they took to blast it for the second quarter of the race, trying to usurp Britain’s predictable mid-race push.

Day Five: 2025 World Rowing Championships in Pictures

This move forced Britain to stretch themselves early, digging hard to maintain contact when normally they would be cruising. As the initially quick USA started to lose momentum, and Poland picked up a bit of rhythm their mid-race cruise had lacked, GBR piled on the pressure, but Italy handled it comfortably. Overlap was regained, but there were plenty more shots in the Italian locker, and as Poland unsuccessfully charged to try for silver, Italy broke contact again and made the gold certain.

“I have to say it’s wonderful to share the podium and the gold medal with these guys here,” said Italian bow Luca Chiumento. “I love it so much, these guys, we share really good moments, sometimes bad. I’m very happy. It was our most powerful piece of the race, we had such a good start, and then we just stayed in the flow of the boat, keep the rate, keep the speed until the last metres to sprint.”

“First world champs medal, so very happy about that,” said British bow Cedol Dafydd, after taking silver. “Obviously you want one more, but we’re happy with the season, it’s pretty much a brand-new quad, happy with how it’s gone this year, and looking forward to the rest of the Olympiad.”

“I don’t think we had a bad race, we had a good race,” said his crewmate Matthew Haywood. “We executed what we wanted to execute, we did the race plan we wanted, I think maybe they just had a race plan to counter our race plan. We’ve raced pretty similarly all year. They put together an incredible race, at the end of the day you’ve got to shake the hand of the crew that’s just beaten you. If you’ve done everything right and they’ve done better, that’s just the way it is.”

During the morning session the galumphing eights barged down the course, a small but high-quality entry for both men and women with two heats for each. Straight through to the final for the women were Britain and Romania, but in very different ways. Olympic 2024 champions Romania, with six of their crew back in the boat, swept to a confident clear-water victory over the Dutch. Both were untroubled as behind them Australia picked off fourth placed Canada.

In the other heat despite having a yellow card for lateness Germany flew early on, leading the field with a panache and speed we haven’t seen the German women’s eight exhibit for decades. This lasted until Britain’s doubling-up crew crept back in the second half, nudged ahead at 1750m gone just after the entry-way to the warm-up lake, and took over the win winding down. The US, a new crew who had rolled along nearly a length back on Germany for most of the course, were towed along by Britain’s energy into a solid third place which confirmed their invitation to the final neatly clear of Italy.

With the Australian men’s four slightly off form their eights brothers had no space for mistakes in the first men’s race. The typically Aussie reaction to this challenge was for their eight to set a blistering pace, storming off with immense confidence to try and whack the British eight again as they had done on home water during Henley Royal Regatta. Joining the party were Poland, looking particularly strong, and Italy, while Romania fell off the pace in the early stages. However the Australian advantage was only a couple of seats, which the British successors to the 2024 Olympic champions chewed up during a hungry first 350m. After that they accelerated further and pulled out to half a length up on Australia then Poland and Italy, the latter two by now firmly embedded in a desperate battle to maximise their chances.

The revelation was Italy, successfully pulling out a cracking sprint in the final 40 seconds, closing hard on the British eight and nipping cannily past Australia. With the Polish refusing to let go, it was a very fast heat which put pressure on those racing next. The second heat included the Germans, the Dutch, the USA and Canada, all nations very used to racing eights at the top level.

For the USA this is a doubling-up event, for the Dutch it’s a mission. With a beautiful flow reminiscent of their 1996 Olympic champion forebears the Dutch bow sped away full tilt. This stretched out the field as the Canadians and Chinese were unable to keep up the pace, Germany and the USA initially close. But the Germans, unlike their women, had neither the looseness nor the catches to stay in the game, quickly dropping back under the pressure of the power washing off the US blades in the next-door lane.

It finished in that order, the unthreatened Dutch followed over the line by the US with Germany third, but in the first high-profile casualty of the new no-reps system, not quick enough to beat the Poles from the other race. Not something we ever thought we’d see here, the Deutsche-Achter’s green boat relegated to the B-final of the world champs. If anything could fire up the German men for 2026, that would be it. A bad day at the office for them, at exactly the wrong time.

The first women’s photofinish of the week came in the second women’s lightweight singles semi, a three-way bonanza in a tricky semi-final between former world champions Kenia Lechuga (MEX) and Siobhan McCrohan (IRL) plus a debut worlds performance from AIN sculler Mariia Zhovner. Lechuga had led all the way and was possibly expecting another easy ride before McCrohan came good and ambushed her in style approaching the grandstands, pouncing for a centre lane. The eventual margin was just 0.04 seconds, while Olympian and under-23 champion Dmitra Kontou had a rare tumble out of the A-final.

In the other semi Michelle Sechser had her best run of the week to drive past Lara Thiefenthaler (AUT) and Pan Dandan (CHN) for a win considerably quicker than that of McCrohan. The men’s lightweights were dominated again by Julian Schoeberl from Austria, the other semi victor Felipe Kluver Ferreira slower at every mark despite being as far ahead of the pack as Schoeberl had been. Schoeberl even had the panache to float across the line after stopping early. Jake McCarthy (Ireland) sneaked past the Uzbekistani sculler in the last few strokes for a last-ditch finals place.

The long-delayed men’s doubles finally signed off on their semi-finals, a jumble of power and passion with some surprising results. The fearless Kiwis fell at the doorway to the final, unable to get properly into gear and trailing nearly a length behind the Swiss in heat 1 which was won by Serbia over Poland. In the cocktail of excellence which was the second semi the Romanians got the better of Ireland and Spain, all three safe in qualification terms but Romania clearly very relieved to have reclaimed their form which has dipped since they won in Paris last year.

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Drag

In the PR3 mixed doubles it has been all change in both Australia and Germany, the gold and bronze medallists from Paris. Remaining the same are the British silver-medal duo of Annabel Caddick and Sam Murray, but the same three nations dominated the heats, season leaders Germany looking the most impressive.

The no-longer Olympic lightweight doubles are reduced here to a mere wisp of an event, but remained competitive despite being straight finals, the women’s gold taken by a stellar Chinese crew whose time of 7:26 would bear comparison with the 2023 headwind final. Behind them Tunisia, originally third, bided their time until the buoys turned red and then surged through Peru to claim silver. China also won the lightweight men’s doubles final, ahead of Indonesia and Germany with Georgia a distant memory more than 300m back. Notably these are the first ever world championship medals for both Tunisia and Indonesia.

Another baking hot day is expected on Friday, the highlights being doubles, fours and para-singles.

2025 World Rowing Championships