"VAN" (Sports Desk - 30.05.2026) :: elite of international rowing returned to Seville for the first time since 2002 on Friday, with calm but slow and hot conditions testing athletes as the 2026 season kicked off.
Experienced veterans mixed it up with World Rowing Cup debutants across the boat classes – but experience did not pay off for all.
Three Olympic champion crews failed to progress to the semifinals on Friday: Paris 2024 women’s single sculls champion Karolien Florijn (NED) had a technical malfunction which caused her to capsize; Tokyo 2020 men’s single sculls champion and 2025 world champion Stefanos Ntouskos (GRE) was off the pace in his heat and quarterfinal; and Rio 2016 men’s double sculls champions Martin and Valent Sinkovic (CRO) could do no better than fourth in their heat.
However plenty of other world and Olympic champions did show good pace. Great Britain’s men’s four, victorious at the 2025 World Rowing Championships in Shanghai, have returned unchanged and cruised to a big win in their heat.
Romania’s Ancuta Bodnar and Simona Radis have returned to the women’s double sculls, and won their heat – but the new Dutch combination of Lisa Bruijnincx and Tessa Dullemans were even quicker in the third heat.
While things did not go to plan for the Sinkovics, Damir Martin, who won the 2010 and 2013 World Rowing Championships with the brothers in the men’s quadruple sculls, had a better day. On his return to racing after a year out, Martin and his crewmates won their heat of the men’s quadruple sculls ahead of Great Britain, an experience the 37-year-old described as "joyful".
At the other end of the experience scale, young Portuguese scullers impressed on the Guadalquivir river. World under-23 bronze medallist Diogo Goncalves, who is still only 20 years old, pushed senior world bronze medallist Yauheni Zalaty (AIN) throughout their quarterfinal. His teammate Joao Veloso, just 18 years old, posted the fastest time in the lightweight men’s single sculls heats.
Meanwhile the Portuguese men’s double sculls crew also won their heat, defeating the Polish world champions in the process.
Racing continues on today from 09:35 CEST with minor finals in nine events, followed by semifinals. Concludes with A-finals in the lightweight men’s and women’s single and double sculls; the remainder of the medal races are on Sunday.
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