"VAN" (Sports Desk - 26.07.2025) :: The first day of finals is set for the 2025 World Rowing Under 23 Championships after an exciting afternoon of semifinals on Poznan’s Lake Malta, Poland.
The finalists were confirmed in five events on Friday after close semifinals, and they will race for medals on Saturday alongside another five events where crews progressed directly from Wednesday’s heats.
Saturday’s racing also features semifinals in a further six events, including the men’s eights.
The men’s pair is set to be one of the closest finals at the regatta, with less than five seconds splitting the six crews in the semifinals. Australia, who were the second-fastest crew in the heats, were knocked out of medal contention after a significant improvement from Great Britain’s Marcus Chute and Theodore Bell, who challenged Switzerland throughout.
However, Seric Critchley and Nicolas Chambers crossed first, and put themselves in a good position to race for Switzerland’s inaugural openweight under 23 sweep medal.
The French women have never won a World Rowing Under 23 Championship gold medal, but strong performances in both the women’s double sculls and women’s fours put them in the running. They were the fastest crew in the semifinals of the women’s fours, although defending champions Great Britain looked controlled winning the other semifinal.
Hosts Poland were the quickest boat in the women’s double sculls semifinals, setting up an exciting encounter with Greece on Saturday. Romania’s Maria-Laura Dumitru and Bianca-Carmelia Ifteni sprinted themselves into second behind Poland from fourth place at 1500m, denying Italy a place in the final.
Greece, who were the fastest crew in the men’s double sculls heats, missed out on the final after being off the pace in a good semifinal where Ireland’s Martin O’Grady and Donagh Claffey who proved the surprise package, improving significantly from their heat performance to take second place behind Italy and ahead of Lithuania.
The men’s fours also raced semifinals on Friday, with defending champions Great Britain winning the first semifinal in a time very slightly quicker than that of the USA in the second.
Racing continues on Saturday from 10:00 CEST, beginning with minor finals, before semifinals from 10:45 CEST. In the afternoon, B-finals start at 13:00 CEST, with medal races beginning at 14:05 CEST with the first-ever PR3 under 23 single sculls finals.
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