European Rowing season kicks off in Kruszwica, Poland with the European Rowing Under 19 Championships

It’s time for the youngsters to shine. The 2025 European Rowing Under 19 Championships in Kruszwica, Poland, will welcome rowers from 27 European member federations.

Many of these athletes will compete internationally for the first time and will be hoping to get some proper racing experience – with their views set on the World Rowing Under 19 Championships later this season in Trakai, Lithuania. Here are the rowers to watch racing 24 to 25 May.

The men’s single sculls event does feature some of last years’ competitors, mixed with the next generation of Under 19 rowers. The top name to watch is the reigning World and European Rowing Under 19 Champion, Panagiotis Makrygiannis of Greece, looking to repeat on his fantastic performance of 2024. The women’s single sculls has fourteen entries, and three gold medallists from the World Rowing Under 19 Championships last year – Varvara Lykomitrou of Greece, Valentina Mascheroni of Italy and Stejara Olariu of Romania.

The men’s and women’s double sculls often attract large entries and this year is no exception. The men’s double sculls is a packed field and the favourites must be Italy’s Giovanni Paoli and Pietro Zampaglione, with the former winning a gold medal in St Catharines last year. Chasing them will be reigning World Champion, Konstantinos Giannoulis, and Iason Mouselimis of Greece, and Jules Beziat and Jordan Goode of France, with both crews having already raced at the World Championships last year. The women’s double sculls sees several of the competitors from the 2024 European Rowing Under 19 Championships returning, France and Greece looking to be strong contenders in that boat class.

Romania often dominates the men’s and women’s pair, especially at the Under 19 and Under 23 level. This time, the new crew of Teodora Lehaci and Denisa Vasilica will have to face lots of new combinations, debuting on the international scene. The men’s pair will also see a new crew for Romania battle against Greece, Serbia and Spain, all with athletes having already raced at the Worlds last year.

Moving on to the bigger boats; The men’s quadruple sculls has 16 entries, making it a packed field, with many crews have athletes that competed at the World and European Rowing Under 19 Championships in 2024. The women’s quadruple sculls also has a very quality field – in both of these boat classes, keep an eye on Poland – both boats have lots of international experience and would want to put on a show on home waters.

The women’s four has eight entries and Italy is certainly the favorite with two World Rowing Under 19 champions from 2024 in the Coxed Four returning. There are nine entries in the men’s four and Romania and Italy are definitely in the running for a medal. The men’s coxed four has two entries from Spain and Poland.

Rounding it out are the eights. The men’s eight has six entries, including Romania who won a gold medal at the last European Rowing Under 19 Championships. Keep an eye too on Croatia who has entered a very experienced young crew. In the women’s eight, the odds are in Italy’s favour in this three-boat race – most of the athletes from Spain will be doubling up and they will have some work to do not to finish last.

Racing starts on Saturday, 24 May at 9:00 AM CET. Live streaming will be available on worldrowing.com.

For all entries, click here.

For the full competition programme, click here.