Day seven at the 2025 World Rowing Championships, in Shanghai, China. With the world championships drawing to a close the third finals programme ended in a sea of orange as the delighted Dutch team and supporters celebrated an historic double, the first men’s and women’s joint golds for a nation since the Soviet Union did it in 1985, at a time when worries about Eastern Bloc doping were rife in rowing and unchecked by the testing which is now standard.

This extraordinary feat sent the Dutch to the top of both the overall medal table and the Olympic/Paralympic table — in a year which is meant to be about rebuilding after changes in both the team composition and the management. It was also the first time ever that the Netherlands has won a senior world championships gold in either eight (their only one is the M8+ Olympic gold in 1996).

For the women it was a simple situation: go out fast, and get faster. The Dutch pulled it off with complete conviction, sweeping out ahead of six of Romania’s Olympic champions without any sign of being daunted despite having been considerably slower during the opening heats. First timing mark: two seconds advantage. Second timing mark: two and a half seconds. Third timing mark: three seconds. After that it was done and dusted for the gold, Romania closing a little as the Netherlands coasted to the line, but no threat. The last stroke for the Dutch was almost a sudden stop as they realised they’d won.

2025 World Rowing Championships

“I think I gave the call at 250m to go and now just enjoy it,” said Dutch cox Dieuwke Fetter. “They’re queens. Look at these girls flying, pushing, and then it’s just the best feeling. Henley [Royal] was great but I think this one will top it.” “Obviously we wanted more, but we saw the Netherlands were very strong, congratulations to them,” said Romania’s Maria Lehaci, who on Sunday will row in the first ever mixed eights with her husband Florin.

The biggest story behind them was the surge from fifth to third by the British women. Faltering in the fours the day before, doubling-up didn’t seem to bother them and the same quartet anchored a sustained move after halfway which took them past first the US and then went again, top whack along the red buoys to kill off Germany’s hopes and finally, only a few strokes before the bubble line, claim bronze. Whilst these second half tactics have been reliably good for Britain, it may be something they want to rethink with the short 1500m course at LA beckoning in only a few years time and other crews whizzing off faster.

“Coming off the back of yesterday, the stern four where we just missed out on a [W4-] medal by just a couple of seconds, to be within a couple of seconds when we came to the 500 [to go, in the eight] I think every one of us just put our foot down,” said GBR stroke Megan Slabbert. “We said it’s not going to happen, we’re not landing back there again.” “Jack called the race spot on, exactly what we needed,” said Lauren Irwin. “He tells us where we are, which is really really useful.” “We’ve been on the receiving end of what the Germans had today and it’s a lot easier to chase it than to be run down,” added Slabbert.

The men’s title didn’t come easily, a problem with the transponder in Australia’s bow number delaying proceedings only for the race to then have to begin twice. The first time was a rare aborted start, the crews getting several strokes in before the alarm was sounded to recall them. It turned out to be nothing to do with the athletes, but a technical issue, probably the sensor in the bow boot malfunctioning and appearing to call a false start. However the time taken to turn round six crews who hadn’t stopped straight away, and get them back and aligned, would have put an additional heat burden on already overstretched rowers.

The second time there was no problem, the Dutch getting away quickly as they had done the first time. With them went the Italians, who had stopped promptly when they heard the false start alert, and the USA, who stayed with the Dutch as the rhythm began to bed down. The Dutch speed, as it had done with the women, just kept coming. Two and a half minutes in they had a full length’s advantage, with slower-rating Britain starting to challenge the USA for second just before halfway, and fighting off an early assault from Australia. With cox Will Denegri calling their margin away from the leading Dutch eight, and Olympic-champion discipline stopping the rowers from peeking, some of the British never realised they were in third place for most of the course with the US, the other side of the Netherlands wash, just ahead.

As the Dutch watched it unfold behind them, the struggle for silver flashed up to boiling point. For nearly 700 metres the US bow stayed a couple of feet ahead of the British boat, US cox Rachel Rane yelling them on. Up went the GB rate, up went the US power, nothing changed, still a short distance in it. Finally the GB sprint started to work, first five strokes dead level with the Americans and then ten strokes to the line, just taking silver. 0.16 seconds in it, about a foot and a half.

For the Dutch, 29 years since their predecessors took Olympic gold, their only other eights title across the decades. At three in the Netherlands crew, already an Olympic champion, Finn Florijn, son of Ronald who sat in exactly the same seat in the 1996 eight. On the bank, yelling them on, Diederik Simon, now the coach of the Dutch eight after being at six in the Atlanta champion crew.

“It wasn’t our plan but it happened,” said Florijn. “We tried some new things but it worked. There was a worry we might have gone out too hard, but in the end we came out great.”

“[Ours] is a very young crew,” said GBR 3-seat David Bewicke-Copley, back after an injury-induced break following his success in the 2022 champion eight. “We had a big turnover off Paris and I’m the only person that’s spent any time in a senior team before, and that was a long time ago. There’s a lot of age group experience in the team, but I think it’s not the result we came here for. But within the context of a four year project it’s definitely not heads down.”

Those were the last two races but the headlines had started earlier. Half an hour earlier Felipe Kluvier Ferreira made his own piece of history by becoming the first senior world champion from Uruguay. Spectators were treated to the Uruguyan national anthem, a perky little number last heard when Kluvier became under-23 champion in 2022. His partner from 2021, when the two of them made the Tokyo Olympic final, Bruno Cetraro Berriolo, goes on Sunday in the men’s openweight singles A-final but will have a very tough time to match that result. Kluvier had to get past Julian Schoerberl (Austria) who led for a large part of the race, and behind the two of them Ireland’s Jake McCarthy, twin of the better known Fintan, matched his brother with a bronze medal.

“I kind of knew in the last 500 I had a good chance,” said McCarthy in the mix zone. “I was hoping to come through the Austrian as well but it got very hot in the last 100. From what I can remember anyway I was gathering a bit of speed and then I dunno, the heat just got the better of me in the last 100. [Fintan] said after all these years I’d better come away with something!”

The women’s lightweight singles started with a former champion in charge — Mexico’s Kenia Lechuga – but rapidly resolved into a three-way battle for gold, Olympian Michelle Sechser (USA) moving through Lechuga inexorably in the third quarter. Behind her China’s tall and strong Pan Dandan profited from the way this threw Lechuga off balance, and sprinted so hard that she not only passed the Mexican but very nearly rowed Sechser down too as the American struggled to find a final lift. She clung on grimly to claim another gold for the US women. Ireland, Austria and AIN were in a different race several lengths back.

“It was a really fun journey to get to hop into the single and have this dream that I could be on the top step at the podium at a world championship and be singing the national anthem as they raised the US flag,” said Sechser. “It’s cheesy but it really meant a lot.”

The PR2 mixed doubles race raised howls of glee from the Chinese spectators as Shuang Liu and Jiang Jijian slaughtered two Europeans who probably started the year thinking they would easily claim gold after the retirement of Gregg Stevenson and Lauren Rowles, the unbeaten duo from the last two Paralympiads. Jasmine Bier and Paul Umbach might have expected to dominate but instead Shuang and Jiang leapt away from them and so did Israel’s new combination, Shahar Milfelder and her partner Saleh Shahin.

Bolstered by Shahin’s power – he’s a mountain of an oarsman – the Israelis stayed close to China and ahead of Germany until Umbach moved with 250m to go and jumped the rate to 38, eroding Israel’s second place relentlessly before claiming it for Germany behind China.

It was Britain’s turn to celebrate para-rowing as the latest edition of their incredible PR3 coxed four picked up its sixteenth end of season gold in a row. With all four Paralympic champion rowers back, this year steered by Tom Bryce who impressively coxed the last three under-23 gold medal men’s eights for Britain, they delivered as expected. First to every mark, first to the line, and in a variable breeze, only four seconds outside the championship best time. Bryce’s first senior victory, and a fitting way to erase the ghosts of Beijing 2008, which was the last time Britain’s para-four lost and the last time they were on Chinese water.

Second went to China, here able to enter events they haven’t often joined at overseas championships, but the best race was for bronze, Italy initially in place but passed by Germany who then fought off a major blast from the USA in the final stages. “This was our first race together since Paris,” said Frankie Allen. “Although we’re unbeaten the nerves stay the same on the start line. The more you win, the more you have a target on your back.”

“I had no expectations, we only started together as a crew three weeks ago,” said Katherine Marchand, who has a great chance to claim gold in the German PR3 double on Sunday. “This year was more for studying and doing other things.”

The last Shanghai racing session on Sunday is a mishmash: the inaugural world championships categories for non-para mixed crews begin with Mix2x and Mix8+ heats in the morning, plus some B races. Then after a break will come medal finals for the PR3 doubles A-finals, women’s and men’s singles, followed finally by the new mixed event finals. Some stellar names are gracing the new categories and it should be a blast, before a big-noise awards ceremony for these last five podiums is held in the centre of Shanghai to pull more attention to world and local rowing.

2025 World Rowing Championships