Monday debrief: 2025 season starts with a bang in Plovdiv

It’s almost nine months since the Rowing community last gathered for a major regatta, at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. In the time since then many big names have announced their retirements, or are taking a break; there have been a host of coaching changes; and kilometre after kilometre of hard winter training for the athletes staying in the sport.

So it was great to see the quality of performances on show at the 2025 European Rowing Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, kickstarting the season on a high. If racing remains as tight as it was on the Plovdiv regatta course throughout the year, we are in for a treat.

Records fall … and fall

The first race of the regatta, the PR1 men’s single sculls heats, saw a world best time set by Britain’s Benjamin Pritchard. That set the tone for things to come on day 1, when a strong, straight tailwind sent crews flying down the course. Plovdiv is known to be a fast course in any case, as it is shallow and warm, but the European record book was well and truly rewritten over the weekend. Pritchard set another world best time in his final, as did Germany’s PR3 mixed double sculls crew, while several boats got close to world bests that have stood for years and in total 16 European Championship best times were set.

Goodbye to repechages

This was the first chance for the new progression system – which has eliminated repechages – to be tried out, and it received a thumbs-up from athletes. There simply is no chance to mess up your heat now: being ‘on’ from the start of the regatta and racing full-out even if you are out of a direct qualification spot have become absolutely essential. That made the racing thrilling from start to finish.

New faces, new boats

The start of a new Olympiad is an opportunity for fresh faces to break on to the scene, and there were debutants across the board in all boat classes and from all countries. Most of those making their senior debuts looked genuinely shocked if they reached the podium.

But there were also changes for plenty of experienced athletes, with the Dutch in particular switching many of their remaining Paris 2024 Olympic medallists from sculling to sweep or sweep to sculling, or into a new boat class. And after Frida Nielsen of Denmark won bronze in the women’s single sculls, it has to be asked if she can still call herself a ‘Danish Sweepheart’.

Of course the Sinkovic brothers’ foray into the men’s four was a talking point, and after a career winning international medals in quadruple and double sculls and the pair, their new, powerful combination with the Loncaric twins looks like another success.

It was also good to see countries entering events they have never contested before – like the Irish women’s quadruple sculls – or not for a very long time, such as Poland’s women’s eight, racing for the first time since 2011.

Sharing the podium

As ever rowing runs in families. We had four sets of siblings winning medals in Plovdiv: the Sinkovics and Loncarics in the Croatian men’s four, the Aigner brothers of Germany in the lightweight men’s pair, and Alice and Giovanni Codato of Italy. The Codatos get the prize for the most medals per family – they both won silver in the pairs on Saturday, and there was an adorable moment when Alice rushed over to hug her brother before his medal ceremony. Then they both doubled up into their respective eights, and added bronze medals to their silvers.

Happy (ex)lightweights

Although Kasper Hirvilampi of Finland confessed before the regatta that he had struggled to drop weight after finding out in April he would have to race the lightweight single at the European championships, many of those we are used to seeing in lightweight events are now racing openweight – and having a lovely time eating and drinking what they want, when they want. “We realised it’s a different sport and regattas are actually kind of fun,” confessed Ireland’s Fintan McCarthy, with a big grin, before winning bronze in the men’s double sculls.

What’s next?

Next up is the World Rowing Cup in Varese, Italy, in a couple of weeks – one of everyone’s favourite courses to race on. It’s another quick lake and set amid stunning mountain scenery (plus, there’s pasta and gelato pretty much on tap).

So just moments after racing everyone was curious to see what their competition would be doing in Varese. We overheard the Dutch women’s four gold medallists asking the Romanian silver medallists if they would be racing the same crew at the World Cup (spoiler: they weren’t yet sure).

And the focus was very much on what is to come, not what happened this weekend. The lake on Sunday morning was packed with boats that had finished racing on Saturday continuing their training. It’ll be a long season, and it’s only just beginning.