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A packed day of finals finished the 2025 World Rowing Cup in Varese, with the Netherlands and Great Britain both winning three gold medals. A trio of silver medals for the Dutch tipped the balance in their favour when it came to the overall standings on the medal table.

Hosts Italy picked up two gold, three silver and three bronze medals, much to the delight of the home fans watching on.

Mol takes gold for the Netherlands

Experienced sculler Eva Mol added a World Rowing Cup gold medal to the silver she recently won at the European Rowing Championships in Plovdiv, with a comfortable win over Japan’s Tomomi Ichikawa.

Result: NED, JPN

Horrie secures emphatic win; first medal for Munoz

 Paralympic bronze medallist Erik Horrie of Australia charged off the start in the PR1 men’s single sculls, chased by European bronze medallist Giacomo Perini (Italy 1). Mexico’s Michel Munoz moved into third place, and that was the order through to the finish. It was Horrie’s first World Rowing Cup victory since World Rowing Cup I in 2022, and a first-ever medal for Munoz, who was delighted with the result.

Result: AUS, ITA1, MEX, USA, ITA2

Horrie said: “I honestly didn’t know how I’d go, I didn’t know if it would just be a crash and burn. I was ready for the old crash and burn as we go down the course. But this old person hung on and held in place, and it worked out well.”

Italian women’s pair dominate for win

European silver medallists Alice Codato and Laura Meriano won a superb gold in the women’s pair final, taking the early advantage and holding on through the finish line. Behind them it was a close race for silver and bronze, with the Dutch pair of Nika Vos and Linn van Aanholt overhauling Czechia’s Anna Santruckova and Pavlina Flamikova in the second half, and Great Britain challenging hard in the closing quarter. Less than a second separated these three boats at the finish.

Result: ITA1, NED1, CZE, GBR, CHI, AUS1

Meriano said: “The Europeans was our first race together, so it gives us a lot of confidence and we couldn’t be more proud of ourselves.”

Kiwi pair overturn Sinkovic Brothers

New Zealand have put together a new pair for this season, with under 23 world champion Oliver Welch teaming up with Benjamin Taylor, who has raced this event for the last couple of years. It has proved instantly quick, and their black bows went out early ahead of the Olympic champions Martin and Valent Sinkovic and stayed that way. The gap closed up a little into the finish, when the entire pack were charging, and it was Switzerland’s Jonah Plock and Patrick Brunner who came from fifth at 1500m to take bronze ahead of the Loncaric brothers of Croatia and Italy’s European silver medallists.

Result: NZL, CRO1, SUI, CRO2, ITA1, NED2

Welch said: “That was a great race. The Croatians stuck with us the whole time, and there was never a point where we thought we’d definitely win. We stepped on really well from the semifinal.”

USA power too much for field in women’s four

In the first 500m there was little to choose between the crews in the women’s four final, although Netherlands 1 had taken a slight lead. USA 1 began to make a move in the second quarter of the race, chased by Australia 1, while New Zealand in lane 6 were also putting in a push. Coming into the finish, USA1 had established a lead of a second over the Netherlands, and they managed to extend this over the line. Meanwhile Australia caught the Netherlands to take silver.

Result: USA1, AUS1, NED1, NZL, USA2, GBR2

Australian men’s four head Dutch 2-3

Australia had been the fastest crew through the earlier stages of the regatta, but it was Netherlands 1 who showed first in the first 500m. The rest of the field kept their overlap on the leaders, but Australia were stretching into a solid rhythm. At halfway, the Australians had a canvas lead, while it was a battle for bronze between Netherlands 2 and Great Britain. The Australian rhythm was good enough to keep them in front in the second 1000m, while the Netherlands celebrated both silver and bronze as the second crew held off Great Britain.

Result: AUS, NED1, NED2, GBR, USA, NZL

Australia’s Fergus Hamilton said: “At the k, I think we really found our rhythm there, and that’s when we started to really catch and move together, a nice long rhythm.”

Chinese find winning new doubles combination

 After winning gold in the women’s quadruple sculls at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, China’s Yunxia Chen and Ling Zhang had a more disappointing Paris Olympiad, eventually finishing sixth in the quad in Paris. They have come back strong in the women’s double sculls, leading the final in Varese from start to finish. Dutch duo Roos de Jong and Benthe Boonstra – both Olympic medallists themselves – charged hard into the finish but could not catch the Chinese. New Zealand’s Kathryn Glen and Stella Clayton-Greene took bronze.

Result: CHN, NED1, NZL1, USA, SUI1, GBR

De Jong said: “We gave everything. We only had a few days together for preparation, so we’re pretty happy.”

Gold for Switzerland in close men’s doubles final

Less than a second split the three medallists in the men’s double sculls after a really excellent race. Switzerland’s Kai Schaetzle and Raphael Ahumada were sixth at 500m with nothing between the boats in the final, but had worked through to the lead by halfway with Poland in second. In the third quarter Italy and New Zealand both made a move and the Kiwi double of Finn Hamill and Benjamin Mason were narrowly second with 500m to go. In the closing sprint, Italy’s Niels Torre and Gabriel Soares found something extra, snatching silver in a photofinish. Notably, the race again proved the competitiveness of smaller athletes, with four of the six medallists coming out of lightweight programmes.

Result: SUI, ITA, NZL, BEL2, POL, AUS1

Schaetzle said: “The Italians went quite fast out of the blocks, then we saw they were struggling a bit around 6, 700m. Then we said ‘come on, let’s try’. Then we made a push and we squeezed away from the other boats and we had a really good rhythm and just kept going.”

Dutch win women’s quadruple sculls

There was little doubt about the winners of the women’s quadruple sculls, with the Netherlands leading from the start to the finish. Behind them, Germany claimed silver and Czechia took a good bronze. Three of the Dutch crew finished third behind the German silver medallists at the European Rowing Championships, showing this event remains wide-open as the season progresses.

Result: NED, GER, CZE, ITA1, ITA2, CHN2

The Netherlands’ Lisa Bruijnincx said: “The race went exactly according to plan. The heat was good, but we really wanted to improve in the final and I think we did.”

Home joy for Italian quad

Poland and Italy 1 were the crews that jumped off the blocks in the men’s quadruple sculls final, taking an early advantage over the field. European champions Great Britain – having substituted Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Tom Barras to replace an ill Callum Dixon – were slow off the start and were sixth at 500m. While Italy 1, containing three members of the Olympic silver medallist crew, drew through Poland 1, and further ahead to take the win, Great Britain were working their way through the pack. Fourth at 1500m behind the Netherlands, the British boat took back time from Poland and a strong closing 500m gave them bronze.

Result: ITA1, POL1, GBR, NED, ITA2, POL2

Van Dorp leads Plihal and Juel home in men’s single

The talk before this race was whether Simon van Dorp and Melvin Twellaar could produce a Dutch one-two – but it was not to be, as Twellaar was off the back from the start, and van Dorp took an early lead. Belgium’s Tim Brys challenged van Dorp hard early on but faded through the race, allowing the USA’s Jacob Plihal to come through for his first medal – silver. Jonas Slettemark Juel also won his first medal, staying ahead of Brys for bronze.

Result: NED1, USA, NOR1, BEL, CHN, NED2

Van Dorp said: “I’m super happy with the win and with what I was able to put out today. It was a quick turnaround from the European championships when I was in the quad, I got less than two weeks to prepare for this.”

European champions add World Cup gold

After their victory in the European Rowing Championships two weeks ago, Great Britain – now with Olympic bronze medallist Eve Stewart bolstering their ranks, after she missed Plovdiv – were clearly determined to show they mean business in this boat class. The British women led from the start and were able to withstand the USA pressure in the closing stages. Meanwhile Australia took bronze, around a length back on the USA.

Result: GBR, USA, AUS, GER, ITA, CHN

Great Britain’s Juliette Perry said: “That was an incredible race. We really pushed very hard. We had a race earlier today and we had quite a quick turnaround – a lot of the other eights did as well – and it was just great work from our crew, great work from the other crews.”

Henry continues to set singles standard

European champion Lauren Henry was pushed a little more in the final than she was in the earlier rounds, but she still had a lead by 500m and extended that to plenty of clear water at the finish. Her time of 7:15.54 was only 0.28 seconds outside the World Rowing Cup best time set by Magdalena Lobnig in Poznan in 2017. Behind her, Juliane Faralisch of Germany rowed a very solid race to take silver, while Ruiqi Li (China) won her first World Rowing Cup medal with bronze.

Result: GBR, GER, CHN1, CAN, BEL, UZB

Henry said: “Really pleased with the race. I kept it lively, there’s obviously bits – no row’s ever perfect – there’s bits to work on. But pleased with the execution, pleased with the result; more to come.”

Great Britain challenged by Germany but claim gold

The British men’s eight, European champions from two weeks ago, put together another strong race to take gold in Varese – but with the chasing pack much closer behind them. Germany were never more than a second behind the British, keeping overlap and pressure on throughout, and their last 500m was the fastest of the field as they took silver. Italy 1 delighted the crowd with bronze.

Result: GBR, GER, ITA1, ITA2, AUS, CHN

Great Britain’s Matthew Rowe said: “I feel like we’re making massive steps on every day. Even between the heats and the finals at both events so far, that training day has brought a massive change and we’ve learned a new key lesson. If we hadn’t had a great day of training yesterday who knows, we might not have been able to implement it in the final today.”

The 2025 World Rowing Cup series continues in Lucerne, Switzerland, between 27-29 June.