Semifinals produce close racing at 2025 European Rowing Championships

Friday’s racing at the 2025 European Rowing Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, saw close racing in the five events contesting semifinals.

With just the top three crews in each semifinal progressing to the weekend’s finals, every stroke counted in the fast conditions. Another two European Championship best times (EChBTs) fell, both to Romania, in the men’s pairs and men’s double sculls.

Racing will continue on Saturday with A and B-finals, starting at 09:30 local time (06:30 UTC); medals will be won in 11 events.

Romania and Spain set up speedy pairs final

 After setting a EChBT in Thursday’s heats, initially Spain’s Jaime Canalejo and Javier Garcia found themselves on the back foot in their semifinal of the men’s pair. But they stayed patient and chased down the fast-starting Italians Nunzio di Colandrea and Giovanni Codato to take first place. Switzerland were third. The second semifinal was a little more spread out, but that did not stop Romania’s Florin Arteni and Florin Lehaci from lowering the EChBT further to 6:13.91.

Another European best in the men’s doubles

The first semifinal of the men’s double sculls featured a host of Olympic medallists – and not all of them could make it to the final. Romanian Olympic champions Andrei Cornea and Marian Enache have promised the Sinkovic brothers that they will break their world best time of 5:59.72, set way back at the 2014 World Rowing Championships, and they got close with an EChBT of 6:00.79 to win semifinal 1. Ireland, including lightweight men’s double sculls Olympic champion Fintan McCarthy, were second with Italy third; France’s Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion in this event, Hugo Boucheron, and his new double partner Victor Marcelot were fourth. Poland, Switzerland and Serbia progressed to the final from the second semifinal.

Tight final in store for men’s quads

Racing for the six spots in the men’s quadruple sculls semifinals was incredibly tight. Poland won semifinal 1 but were tracked closely throughout by defending European champions Italy; Spain took third place just ahead of Ukraine. In semifinal 2, the Dutch started fastest but were caught by Great Britain in the third 500m. Germany were third. Less than five seconds separated all six crews in time, so Sunday’s final should be unmissable.

Single sculls newcomers impress

Four competitors in the women’s single sculls final will be made up of athletes new to this boat class, after solid performances in the semifinals. Following her EChBT on Friday, Great Britain’s Lauren Henry again looked comfortable winning semifinal 1, ahead of Frida Nielsen (Denmark) and Olympic bronze medallist Viktorija Senkute (Lithuania). In semifinal 2, it was Fiona Murtagh of Ireland who took the win, following a good start by Benthe Boonstra of the Netherlands; in turn, Greek sculler Evangelia Anastasiadou overtook Boonstra in the second half of the race, but Boonstra had done enough to qualify. Of the six finalists, only Senkute was racing the single last season, and Anastasiadou is the only other athlete to have competed in this event at senior level previously.

2024 medallists pack men’s singles final

The men’s single sculls final will feature several 2024 medallists in this event. Paris Olympic silver medallist Yauheni Zalaty (AIN) won his semifinal some four seconds ahead of 2024 European bronze medallist Giedrius Bieliauskas of Lithuania, with Germany’s Marc Weber third. Meanwhile 2024 European silver medallist Stefanos Ntouskos (Greece) took the second semifinal, in a very slightly slower time than Zalaty’s, followed by Romania’s Mihai Chiruta and Bulgarian Kristian Vasilev. Vasilev was the European bronze medallist in 2022, while this will be Chiruta’s first European final after several B-final appearances in previous years.

Germany on top in preliminary races

Three events had preliminary races on Friday, kicking off with the PR2 mixed double sculls. Germany’s Paul Umbach and Jasmina Bier won silver at the 2024 European Rowing Championships but then failed to qualify for the Paralympic Games; they overhauled Paralympic bronze medallists Israel in the closing stages of Friday’s race to claim the win, but need to do it again on Sunday to become European champions.

Germany also won both the lightweight men’s double sculls and lightweight men’s pairs preliminary races.