The overall World Rowing Cup title at stake at the 2025 World Rowing Cup - Lucerne

The second and final event in the 2025 World Rowing Cup series will be taking place in Lucerne, Switzerland from 27 – 29 June. The event will determine the overall winner of the 2025 World Rowing Cup Series.

The 2025 World Rowing Cup – Lucerne has entries from 44 nations across 18 boat classes. The largest teams are coming from Great Britain, Australia and Romania, with the home nation, Switzerland, hoping for an first World Rowing Cup gold medal at the Rotsee since 2023.

With the two World Rowing Cups only two weeks apart, most of the crews that tested their speed in Varese will be back in the same combinations in Lucerne. We will also see the return of Rowing legend, two-time Olympic Champion and seven-time World Rowing Champion from Ireland, Paul O’Donovan, stepping up from the lightweight, to the open weight double sculls.

The largest boat class is the men’s single sculls with 34 entries. Norway’s Jonas Juel was a surprising bronze medallist at the World Cup in Varese, and will look to build on his strong performance in Italy. Facing him will be 2025 European Rowing Champion Yauheni Zalaty (AIN), and Tokyo 2020 Olympic Champion, Stefanos Ntouskos of Greece.

After a brief return to the Pair, the Sinkovic and Loncaric brothers are back in the men’s four, where they will face stiff competition from a very powerful Australian combination, led by Olympic gold medallist Alex Hill, and Romania, the reigning European Rowing champions, who battled all the way to the line with Croatia a month ago in Plovdiv.

The new phenomenon in the women’s single sculls, Lauren Henry of Great Britain, will look to extend her absolute domination. Who can stop her? Fiona Murtagh of Ireland and Frida Nielsen of Denmark, who joined Henry on the podium in Plovdiv? Or Aurelia-Maxima Janzen, who was a World U19 and U23 Champion in the single, racing on home waters in Lucerne?

Only three Para boat classes will be contested in Lucerne, but the competition in the PR1 Men’s single sculls promises to be spectacular, with the reigning Paralympic champion, Ben Pritchard, facing Erik Horrie of Australia, Markus Klemp of Germany and Alexis Sanchez of France – a lineup that could well be one of a Paralympic Games’ A-Final.

Following a successful debut in Varese, the Mixed Eight will again be staged as a test event, with all crews composed of athletes doubling up from other boats. It will be a nice rematch between the United States of America and Germany, who battled all the way to the line in Varese.

The Netherlands are currently in the lead of the 2024 World Rowing Cup points, with 45. They are followed by Great Britain with 42, and Italy with 37.

The World Rowing Cup series was launched in 1997 and consists of a annual series of three events, although, exceptionally, only two stages will be held in 2025. The overall World Rowing Cup winners are determined after the last event through the points accumulated at both events. This year, the three stages of the series are Varese, Italy (13-15 June), Lucerne, Switzerland (27-29 June).

Racing begins on Friday, 27 June with heats, and will continue through to semi-finals, with Finals on Sunday 29 June. Saturday and Sunday’s racing will be live streamed on www.worldrowing.com.

For the full list of entries, visit the 2025 World Rowing Cup – Lucerne event page.