The World Rowing Under 23 Championships has launched many a rowing career. For athletes moving out of junior competition, Duisburg, the location of this year’s U23 world championships, is the first sustained test against rowers with several seasons of international or university racing behind them. For established U23 champions, it is another chance to defend last year’s result.
Photo Germany’s 2025 BM1x silver medallist Oliver Holtz
Take Turkey’s Cevdet Ege Mutlu as an example. The 21-year-old Turkish sculler travels to Duisburg, Germany as the defending champion. He won the 2025 U23 men’s single title by almost three seconds, having impressed throughout the regatta. Mutlu produced a patient final in Poznan. Germany’s Oliver Holtz led through 1,500 metres, but the Mutlu moved decisively in the closing quarter.
Photo Defending BM1x champion Cevdet Ege Mutlu of Turkiye is the favourite for gold in Duisburg.
This year promises to be another action packed programme. The 2026 World Rowing Under 23 Championships features over 600 athletes who will compete from 23–26 July. Singles, doubles, pairs, quads, fours and eights sit alongside four lightweight events. The Para rowing programme comprises PR3 men’s and women’s singles, mixed doubles and mixed eights.
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Champions Face Fresh Opposition
Greece’s Nikolaos Cholopoulos, a former U19 world champion in the double, returns after challenging for the medals in the aforementioned 2025 men’s single final. The Greek entry also includes Dimitra Eleni Kontou, whose victories span U19 and U23 competition alongside senior international success. Kontou teams up with world and European U19 champion Eleni Diavati in the women’s double.
Photo Greece’s Dimitra Eleni Kontou (left) pictured with Zoi Fitsiou at the 2024 European Rowing Championships in Szeged, Hungary.
Italy brings continuity in the BM2x. Marco Prati and Josf Giorgia Marvucic return as defending champions, while multiple U19 crew-boat champions Noemi De Vincenzi and Aurora Spirito step into the women’s quad. Romania’s Bianca-Camelia Ifteni, winner of successive U19 women’s single titles, adds another proven junior record to the sculling field.
2026 World Rowing Under 23 Championships
Britain Defends Its Big-Boat Grip
Great Britain topped the 2025 medal table with four golds, winning both eights, the women’s four and the women’s quad. Its men’s eight secured a sixth consecutive title and remains unbeaten at these championships since 2018.
The 41-athlete British team contains nine returning world champions, but 23 members will make their U23 debut. That balance leaves Britain with experience in crucial seats and uncertainty around several substantially rebuilt crews. But blooding in new talent is crucial for the long term success of elite Olympic and Paralympic programmes.
Photo GBR BM8+ 2025. Great Britain have been crowned under-23 M8+ world champions for the last six editions of the under-23 worlds, 2019 to 2025.
Ben Mead, Tristan Wenger and Cameron Tasker move from last year’s champion BM8+ into the four, where third-time U23 competitor Marcus Chute will stroke. The women’s eight retains coxswain Nikita Jacobs with Matilda Drewett and Alice Baker, while 2025 women’s four champion Maddie Greenstock joins them.
Liv Cheesmur is the sole returning athlete in the BW4x that won last year. She races with Lara Grant, Zara Povey and Grace Dawson, all making their British U23 debuts. Grant arrives after winning the inaugural Danesfield Challenge Cup at Henley, while Povey won both Championship Quads and Doubles at BUCS Regatta.
Photo Great Britain topped the 2025 medal table with four golds, winning both eights, the women’s four and the women’s quad.
Ellie-Kate Hutchinson defends the women’s four title, and Freddy Foxwell moves into the BM2x after helping win the Prince of Wales Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta. Nat Toms, who made history in 2023 by becoming the first woman to steer a British men’s eight to gold with the U19 crew, takes charge of the BM8+.
“The 2026 U23 team goes to Duisburg with over 50% new vests in the team, alongside four coaches new to the U23 set up,” British Olympic Pathway head coach Pete Sheppard said. The turnover makes Britain’s 2025 results an uncertain guide to this year’s performance.
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Germany Has Chances Across the Course
Germany enters 19 of the 20 boat classes on home water. Its strength is based on depth: the nation collected five silver and five bronze medals in 2025, more medals overall than any other team, but did not match Britain’s four victories.
Photo Germany enters 19 of the 20 boat classes on home water.
The Wedau regatta course, which was built in 1935, gives the hosts familiar surroundings and opportunities throughout the schedule. Its 2,180-metre basin has staged the 1983 World Championships, the 2001 World Junior Championships, the 2012 World Masters Regatta and numerous World Cups.
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The Eights Bring Global Depth
The United States could present the biggest challenge to Great Britain in the BM8+, but don’t write off dark horses New Zealand who won silver in 2025. New Zealander Nicholas Bryan returns from that crew, and every member of the new line-up has previous international experience. Five raced in New Zealand U19 eights, while others arrive from domestic and US university programmes.
Photo Could the New Zealanders dethrone the British Eight?
The United States has entered 17 events and brings back 11 athletes from its 2025 squad. Joely Cherniss is among the women’s eight returners from the silver-medal crew, and five athletes have moved up from the 2025 U19 team.
Canada sends a women’s eight and men’s four. Toronto-born Cornell coxswain Charlotte Langlois steers a women’s crew largely drawn from NCAA programmes, including three Michigan athletes. Canada finished third in this event last year, behind Britain and the United States.
Photo USA BW8+ 2025. The United States have a flawless podium streak dating back to 2006, which was the first time the women’s eights event was introduced to the under-23 world championships.
Heats begin on 23 July, with the title races concluding on 26 July. Across four days, Duisburg will measure established U23 champions against the latest group advancing from junior and collegiate rowing.
