"VAN" (Sports Desk - 31.05.2025) :: After a series of fast heats and semifinals in the first two days of racing at the 2025 European Rowing Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, the lineups are set for finals in all 20 events. Medals will be awarded in 11 events on Saturday 31 May, culminating in the women's and men’s four.
Friday’s racing included semifinals for the men’s pair and men’s double sculls, both of which have their finals on Saturday. Romania’s crews in the two events further lowered the European Championship best times (EChBTs) which had been set in Thursday’s heats.
In the men’s pair, Florin Arteni and Florin Lehaci took the win in the second semifinal and knocked over two seconds off the EChBT set on Friday by Spain’s Jaime Canalejo and Javier Garcia, who won the first semifinal. While Romania were almost four seconds ahead of the rest of the field, the other five crews contesting the final – Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Lithuania and Greece – are tightly packed on time.
Romanian Olympic champions in the men's double sculls, Andrei Cornea and Marian Enache posted an EChBT of 6:00.79, only a second slower than the 11-year-old world best time held by Croatia’s Sinkovic brothers, in winning their semifinal.
Cornea and Enache face competition on Saturday from Ireland, Italy, Poland, Switzerland and Serbia. The Irish crew includes world and Olympic lightweight men’s double sculls champion Fintan McCarthy, one of a number of former lightweight rowers excelling in openweight events in Plovdiv.
Romania will also be hopeful of success in other events on Saturday, having posted the fastest heat times in the women’s pair and men’s four on Thursday.
Meanwhile look out for the Netherlands in the finals tomorrow - especially in the women's double sculls and women's four, where they clocked the fastest time in the first round of racing.
In the para-rowing finals on Saturday, the PR1 men’s single sculls sees all three of last year’s medallists clash again for the European title. Paralympic champion Benjamin Pritchard (Great Britain) won bronze at the 2024 European Rowing Championships but after a blistering time in the heats, has shown he is the favourite for his first continental title. In the PR3 mixed double sculls, new EChBT holders Germany go again against European champions and Paralympic silver medallists Great Britain.
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