The United States climbed to the top of the medal table on the final day of the 2026 World Rowing Cup II in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The Americans secured six golds and five silvers across the regatta, pushing Uzbekistan into second place. Two silver medals separated third place Italy from Uzbekistan, with both nations securing three gold and two bronze medals. The star of Team Uzbekistan, and arguably of the whole Plovdiv World Cup, has to be sculling stalwart Shakhboz Kholmurzaev.
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The 30-year-old ex-lightweight made his international debut over a decade ago and has since competed at two Olympic Games, but today he raced his first A-final. Had Kholmurzaev been a cyclist in the Tour de France he would undoubtedly have earned himself a combativity award (or prix de la combativité), which is given to a rider who sets the race alight with brave, full-blood attacks. His performance in the men’s single sculls was exactly that, brave and full-blooded. The fact that he turned around to row in a second final just minutes later is even more impressive. Chapeau!
At first, Kholmurzaev’s early lead looked like a typical fly-and-die tactic from an inexperienced chancer happy to be taking part, or to continue the cycling theme like a pro rider who jumps the start to get air time for their sponsors, but as the meters ticked by Kholmurzaev continued to lead. Pursuing him was a talented cast of scullers including Olympic, world, and European medallists.
The wheels began to come off in the second half but the damage was already done. Samuel Melvin (USA1) squeezed passed Kholmurzaev in the third quarter. In the final few hundred meters the toll began to show as the Uzbek sculler yielded to the late charging Plihal, who had suffered a nervy digger early in the race. Kholmurzaev crossed the line in third place ahead of Italy’s Olympic silver medallist Gabriel Soares. Plihal pressured Melvin for gold but finished in second 0.27 second behind his teammate. Expect to see Plihal return to the USA men’s quad later in the season.
Incredibly Kholmurzaev skipped the medal ceremony, subbing in one of his teammates to collect his bronze medal, and headed to the start of the mixed double sculls with Anna Aksenova. The Uzbeks sculled another canny race to collect silver behind the USA double of Sophia Vitas and Cedar Cunningham. Venezuela 2 claimed bronze to add to their silver from Seville.
New Zealand’s Almost Record Breakers
The pairs were the first crews to fight for medals on Sunday. Race favourites Kaitlin Knifton and Teal Cohen (USA1) started slowly in the women’s pair, a couple of boat lengths down on the Chilean and Czech rowers. Through the mid-race the Texans cut through the field with relentless efficiency, blasting into the lead in the final 500 meters and rowing themselves firmly to gold. Silver to the Chilean sisters, Melita and Antonia Abraham, who rowed through Czechia’s Seville gold medallists, Anna Santruckova and Pavlina Flamikova, who settled for bronze.
New Zealand’s Oliver Welch and Benjamin Taylor threatened to break the World Best Time of 06:08.5, set by their fellow countrymen Hamish Bond and Eric Murray at the London 2012 Olympics. With the gold medal all but stitched up, Welch and Taylor were on target for the record at halfway and the 1500 meter mark, but they couldn’t quite hold their pace in the final few hundred meters, they finished in a time of 06:09.04. Behind them the Americans won silver slipping clear of bronze medallists Italy.
The Sinkovics Are Back
Revival complete. Croatia’s Sinkovic brothers, Martin and Valent, the three-time Olympic champions, returned to the top step of the podium after demolishing the men’s double sculls field in the A-final, marking a spectacular turnaround from their 13th place in Seville. They missed their own World Best Time, but set a new World Cup Best Time of 6:00.97.
Xudi Yi and Zhiwei Deng (CHN1) charged to the front of the field early in the race but faded in the second half. The Chinese scullers took bronze behind the fast-finishing New Zealanders, Finn Hamill and Benjamin Mason.
On the women’s side, China got off to another flying start, but again they were hunted down by Italy and USA. At the finish line Clara Guerra and Alica Gnatta (ITA) took gold with two seconds to spare, behind them a photofinish gave Kristina Wagner and Lauren O’Connor (USA) silver by 0.03 seconds over China’s Xinyu Zhang and Shuangmei Shen.
Ferociously Fast Fours: New Player in The Men’s Four
The new-look USA women’s four obliterated their A-final in a sizzling time of 6:15.75, which created big gaps behind them. New Zealand were the closest, finishing just over a length back, winning a silver medal, with Italy taking bronze well ahead of Romania, China, and Austria.
Chun Li, Zepeng Li, Zhiqiang Shao, and Shihao Bian (CHN1) delivered a consummate display in the men’s four, a boat class in which their country has not traditionally found much success. It was likely China’s first ever World Rowing gold medal in this boat class. While the Plovdiv field is significantly less competitive than usually, in part due to the absence of Great Britain’s world champions and the Dutch, it was nevertheless an impressive performance from China. What’s changed? The Chinese are currently being coached by Ian Wright, the New Zealander who led the Swiss lightweight men’s four to Rio gold.
The fight for the minor medals saw New Zealand, who were focussed on holding off Ukraine in the lane next to them, fall victim to the famously fast finishing Romanians. Romania won silver ahead of the Kiwi bronze medallists in the dying strokes.
Joyous moments in the PR3 Mix2x
At the finish line of the PR3 Mix2x there were huge celebrations from the Uzbek strokeman Akbarali Abduvaliev, who, along with his teammate Dinara Belyanina in the bow seat, repeated their winning performance in the preliminary race to beat Turkey’s Recap Tula and Nurcan Kocaman.
“Amazing. This race was amazing, because we are the youngest competitors in the regatta. Thank you to my coaches and my partner for supporting me, this is a big win for the Uzbekistan team,” said Abduvaliev.
Total Focus Pays Off in The Quads
Like their counterparts in the women’s four, the Americans dominated the women’s quads five boat final. Unable to live with the pace set by America the rest of the field began to spread. Romania fell by the wayside early on, followed shortly after by Czechia. As the US stretched their hefty clear water lead in the second half, China briefly went bowball-to-bowball with the New Zealanders, before slipping back and crossing the line in third place.
“We executed our race exactly as we planned and as we’ve been talking about all week. The plan was to stay really locked in until the 750 and kind of see how the race played out, and that’s exactly what happened,” Isa Darvin (USA) told World Rowing.
Blink and you miss it. China and Italy were locked in a tight battle at the front of the men’s quads field, moving away from the rest of the field in the first half, but as the final 500 meters beckoned the Italians blasted away from China, claiming gold with lengths to spare. Bronze for Ukraine.
Singles to Savour
Serbia’s long serving sculler, Jovana Arsic, produced a flawless A-final in the women’s single sculls to claim her first world cup gold medal. Grace Joyce (USA) tracked a couple seconds behind the eventual winner, but although the American sculler stayed in contact, she was never quite able to launch a serious attack for gold. Behind Joyce, there was heartbreak for Ukraine’s Kateryna Dudchenko, who was rowed out of the medals by the Uzbek sculler, Anna Prakaten. The Tokyo silver medallist was overcome with emotion at the finish line, but later appeared delighted to collect her bronze medal.
The Eights
As the wind swung from tail to cross it was a case of rinse and repeat in the big boats. Just an hour or two after collecting their respective pair and four gold medals, the doubling up US rowers won yet more hardware in the women’s eight, dispatching the Chinese eight with ease, as they did in yesterday’s preliminary race.
On the men’s side Italy took the top spot, blitzing down the Bulgarian course in the mid-40s, well clear of the USA, who took the silver medal ahead of China.
Roll on Lucerne where the 2026 World Rowing Cup Series will conclude in two weeks time.
