The defending champions face very different assignments when the World Rowing Under-23 Championships reach Duisburg from 23 to 26 July. Türkiye’s Cevdet Ege Mutlu must overcome four returning M1x finalists, while Italy’s Melissa Schincariol meets one of age-group rowing’s most decorated lightweights.
A new W1x champion is guaranteed after the departure of Alexandra Foester and Aurelia-Maxima Janzen from the under-23 ranks. The PR3 singles offer another contrast: three women meet in a straight final, while Australia’s Sam Stunell defends his men’s title against four challengers.
Over 600 athletes are expected at the Wedau Regatta Course, a 2,180-metre venue, built in 1935 and recently selected to host the 2028 World Rowing Cup III.
PR3 Singles: Stunell Starts as the Benchmark
The PR3 women’s single brings together athletes from Australia, Spain and Uzbekistan, each arriving by a different route.
Dinara Belyanina, Uzbekistan’s 17-year-old sculler, is the youngest, but already has experience in two crew boats. She raced the PR3 Mix4+ at Lucerne’s ‘Last Chance Regatta’ in 2024, before concentrating on the mixed double, in which she won her first World Cup medal (gold) in Plovdiv earlier this season.
Her mixed-double partner, Akbarali Abduvaliev, will make his PR3 men’s single debut in Duisburg.
Australia’s Susannah Lutze has built her international career through sweep rowing. The 22-year-old, born in Scotland before moving to Melbourne with her family in 2008, narrowly missed the podium on her 2023 World Championships debut in the PR3 Mix4+.
Lutze remained in the mixed four until this season, when she combined two assignments at World Cup III in Lucerne. She rowed in Australia’s bronze-medal PR3 Mix4+ and won the PR3 W2- with Wallis Russell. Duisburg will show how well that sweep power transfers into the single.
Photo Australia’s defending under-23 world champion, Sam Stunell, could be the one to beat in Duisburg, Germany.
Spain’s Rocio Fraguela Moas has raced internationally only once. She won the PR3 Mix4+ B-final at the 2025 World Championships and now takes on two World Cup gold medallists in her first international singles race.
Stunell carries the clearest favourite’s tag across either PR3 event. The Australian is the defending under-23 champion and has continued racing internationally in the mixed double, taking World Cup bronze with Ella Marshall in Lucerne.
Germany’s Jan Rothlaender returns after finishing fourth in 2025. Italy’s Igor Zappa moves across from the pair, while French 16-year-old Erwan Chamouleau makes his international debut in the five-sculler field.
LM1x: Veloso Joins a Crowded Medal Fight
The lightweight men’s single has 18 entries, one of the largest singles fields, and no shortage of athletes with senior experience.
Luca Borgonovo and Angelos Athanasiadis Kaoudis resume a contest shaped by the 2025 European Under-23 Championships. Italy’s Borgonovo took silver there, one place ahead of the Greek sculler. Germany’s Luca Britten and individual neutral athlete Mikita Karneyeu also reached that final but missed the medals.
Karneyeu has since returned to a senior podium. The Belarusian took bronze at World Cup III in Lucerne, adding to medals won at senior and under-23 European level.
Portugal’s Joao Sebastiao Veloso made an even faster entrance. The 18-year-old won on his international debut at the opening World Cup in Seville, recording 6:56.04 and finishing more than five seconds clear of Hong Kong’s Hin Chun Chiu. He then stepped into the openweight field in Lucerne, gaining further senior experience before Duisburg.
Veloso emerged from the youthful Portuguese squad profiled by World Rowing after Seville. His opening win established him as a current under-23 contender.
Slovakia’s Peter Strecansky brings a longer record. A World Cup bronze medallist in 2024 and twice an Under-19 World Championships bronze medallist, he finished fourth in the LM1x at last year’s under-23 championships. He returns to Duisburg in contention for a medal.
Seven of the 18 entries will make their international debuts. Simeon John represents the United States and Dario Schuler races for Switzerland. The remaining newcomers are Troy Zillen of South Africa, Palestine’s Ghazi Kanaan, Dutch sculler Victor Verbrugge, Morocco’s Jabir Ibrahimi and Alhamdan Faha of Kuwait.
LW1x: Lioliou’s Record Meets Schincariol’s Title
Gavriela Lioliou and Melissa Schincariol give the 11-boat lightweight women’s field two clear reference points.
Greek sculler Lioliou made her international debut four years ago and has since become a regular A-finalist. Her record includes four age-group championship titles, alongside several silver and bronze medals.
Schincariol owns the title everyone else wants. The Italian is the defending world under-23 champion in the LW1x and took bronze at the 2025 European Under-23 Championships.
Germany’s Nathalie Sendjuk brings proven speed from the double. She won LW2x bronze at last year’s World Under-23 Championships before taking European under-23 silver several months later. Her background also includes a quarterfinal appearance in the CJW1x at the 2024 World Beach Sprint Finals, giving her competitive experience as a solo sculler outside flatwater racing.
Luciana Zegarra has made a more substantial category change. The Peruvian, formerly a beach sprint sculler, finished 10th in the openweight W1x at last year’s under-23 championships. She began 2026 as a lightweight and placed 11th at World Cup I.
Tunisia’s Yosr Hedhli is also moving from coastal into flatwater competition. Morocco’s Sarah Ghazaz returns after finishing ninth in this event last year, while Boston University graduate Ela Ersan makes her international debut for the United States.
Norway’s Ane Elinsdatter Hoeien steps up from the under-19 ranks. She raced the women’s double at consecutive Under-19 World Championships in 2023 and 2024, as well as the 2024 European Under-19 Championships in Poland.
M1x: Six Finalists, Five Return
The men’s single has retained almost its entire 2025 A-final. Five of the six finalists return, with German silver medallist Oliver Holtz the only absentee.
Defending champion Cevdet Ege Mutlu arrives with senior form behind him. The former European under-23 champion finished fifth at World Cup II earlier this summer, a result which reinforces his position at the front of the 25-strong Duisburg field.
Diogo Goncalves has produced the season’s most visible result outside World Rowing competition. The Portuguese sculler became the first from his country to reach the Diamond Challenge Sculls final at Henley Royal Regatta, where Olympic champion Olli Zeidler proved too strong.
Goncalves took bronze in the BM1x last year and has performed consistently through the 2026 World Cup series. His medal in 2025 came by just 0.36 seconds over Greece’s Nikolaos Cholopoulos, who returns after finishing fourth.
Denmark’s August Wisholm and Sweden’s Erik Kallstrom complete the group of returning finalists. Kallstrom was the silver medallist in this event two years ago.
Marco Selva adds another title holder to the contest. The Italian won the 2025 European under-23 M1x championship and most recently finished fourth in the men’s double at World Cup II.
Home sculler Jesse Ilsemann (GER) makes his international singles debut after coming within a few seconds of a BM4x medal at the 2025 European Under-23 Championships. Latvia’s Valters Sejans is another crew-boat convert, having spent much of his international career in the junior double before finishing 12th in last year’s BM4x.
Levi Munster, a maths and statistics student at Middlebury College, makes his international debut for the United States. Uzbekistan’s Jamalbek Turgunov steps up after taking JM1x silver at the 2025 Under-19 World Championships.
W1x: Junior Champions Chase an Open Title
For several seasons, Alexandra Foester and Aurelia-Maxima Janzen controlled the under-23 women’s single. With both now over age, the title is open.
Varvara Lykomitrou has the strongest recent age-group results. The 19-year-old Greek is the reigning world and European under-19 W1x champion, and she has already won at under-23 level after taking the women’s double title with Dimitra Eleni Kontou last year.
Romania’s Bianca-Camelia Ifteni presents an equally accomplished junior record. The 19-year-old won consecutive junior world singles titles in 2023 and 2024, together with European junior titles in the single and coxed four. Her first senior season has included 12th in the double at Shanghai and 11th in the single at Seville.
Esther Fuerte Chacon provides a familiar rival for Lykomitrou. The Spanish sculler finished behind her at both major under-19 championships last year and now makes her under-23 debut. Portugal’s Madalena Peca returns to international competition five years after winning the B-final on her Beach Sprints debut in Oeiras.
Megan Knight carries Great Britain’s challenge at her third consecutive World Under-23 Championships. An under-23 and junior quad bronze medallist, Knight raced the BW4x in 2024 and the BW2x last year. The single completes her progression through all three open sculling boat sizes.
Switzerland’s Seraina Stirnimann also switches from the quad. Germany’s Paula Lutz has more experience in both settings: she stroked the silver-medal BW4x last year, finished fourth in that boat in 2024 and placed sixth in the single at the 2023 European Under-23 Championships.
Ireland’s Sophia Young arrives after making her senior debut in the double this season. The Methodist College Belfast rower and Alison Bergin reached the Seville A-final, then missed the Lucerne final by 0.6 seconds before placing second in the B-final.
Australia’s Sarah Bourke, who began rowing in Townsville in 2019, makes her international debut. Brazil’s Isabella Silveira Fonseca Gomes and Japan’s Utaha Mitoma will also race internationally for the first time, entering a W1x field with no incumbent champion and several proven winners in contention.
