Daily Digest: Heats concluded in Trakai

Day two of the 2025 World Rowing U19 Championships saw sunny conditions on the lake in Trakai, Lithuania, as the remainder of the heats were contested.

Romanian women’s pair looking dominant

As a nation with such pedigree in this boat class, it was no surprise to see Romania’s Teodora Lehaci and Denisa Mihaela Vasilica comfortably leading the second heat of the U19 women’s pair. However, Rayhon Sattorova and Aydana Smetullaeva of Uzbekistan went even faster in the third heat, clocking the fastest qualifying time – 7:40.48. Semifinals in this boat class will take place on Saturday.

Close racing in men’s pairs

Whilst Australia got off the fastest in heat one of the men’s pair and led for the first half of the race, the experienced British duo came through in the second half to cross the line first, clocking 6:39.55, narrowly ahead of the Australians. The second heat was a similarly close affair between South Africa and Serbia – with the two pairs exchanging the lead during the race. Serbia’s reigning U19 European Champions Milan Cvetkovic and Milan Stevanovic eventually secured the win, although their time of 6:57.87 wasn’t as fast as the other heats. Turkiye field the youngest crew in this boat class, but Muhammed Enes Kilic and Can Yuce were very impressive and clocked 6:52.47 with a clear-water lead. Germany took the final heat win, clocking 6:53.60 in heat four.

 2024 medalists looking for more success

Several boats in the women’s four featured medalists from the 2024 World Rowing U19 Championships, and that experience really showed today. Italy, the reigning U19 European Champions, took the win in the first heat – their boat has multiple medalists from other boats classes at last year’s World Rowing U19 Championships on board. The fastest time across the three heats was posted by the USA in heat two – the crew featuring three U19 champions from the eight last year. Speaking of last year’s eights, the British crew, which took the win in the third and final heat, has two of last year’s silver medal-winning crew on board – they looked unchallenged today.

Great Britain post fastest time in men’s four

It was perhaps no surprise to see Australia producing a fast men’s four – taking the win in the first heat, leading from the start. Meanwhile, Germany, who were absent from the European Rowing U19 Championships took control of the second heat from the start, finishing ahead of this year’s European Champions Romania. Great Britain also didn’t race at the Europeans, but are no strangers to the podium in the men’s four, and proved they are on track for that today as they posted the fastest qualifying time (6:15.93) when they won the third and final heat.

Close qualifying times in the women’s quad

The first two heats of the women’s quad produced exceptionally close winning times. Eyes had been on the reigning champions, Italy in heat one, but it was an impressive looking British crew that took the early lead, and control of the race. They crossed the line in a time of 6:43.82 only marginally slower than the 6:43.63 which Germany clocked when they won the second heat. New Zealand took the early lead in the third and final heat until this year’s European U19 champions Poland made their move and came through to claim victory in 6:56.53.

Germany overhaul European Champions

Poland come to Trakai as reigning European Champions in the U19 men’s quad, however, they had a slow start in today’s heat. They sat in third place for the first half of the race and whilst they moved into second in the third quarter, they didn’t have enough to overcome the German crew which had led for much of the race. Germany’s time of 6:04.09 was just marginally faster than the 6:04.30 that Italy had clocked to win the previous heat. The European silver medalists from Switzerland had won the first heat whilst an impressive looking crew from Slovenia took control of heat two.

Stage set for an exciting women’s eight final

Preliminary races don’t often come as close as that, but there was less than five seconds separating all six crews in the U19 women’s eight. The USA are reigning U19 champions in the boat class, but Great Britain got the better of them today by just 0.38 seconds. It’ll be exciting to see what happens in the final on Sunday.

 Men’s eights round off the heats

Matching the performance of their women’s eight in the previous race, the Great Britain men’s eight looked impressive in the first heat, controlling the race from the start to cross the line in 5:49.26. Whilst Germany took the early lead in the second heat, Czechia came through in the second quarter of the race and were trading places with Germany. After a sprint to the line from both crews, it was Germany that claimed the win, crossing the line just 0.65 seconds ahead of Czechia. The stage is set for an epic final on Sunday!

Tomorrow’s racing

Day 3 will start with some minor finals before we move to quarterfinals in the single sculls and then semifinals in the double sculls. Racing will start at 10:30 local time.