28 Aug 2025
Shanghai Welcomes the World: Entries Confirmed for 2025 World Rowing Championships
The strongest field since the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games will come together in Shanghai, China for the 2025 World Rowing Championships.
To be held from 21 to 28 September, the event has attracted nearly 900 athletes from 56 delegations, that will compete in 23 boat classes.
Of the Olympic boat classes the men’s single sculls stands out with the largest number of entries, coming from 36 nations. This includes the return on the International stage of the reigning Olympic and World Champion, Oliver Zeidler of Germany. He will face familiar foes in Yauheni Zalaty (AIN) and Simon Van Dorp (NED), who were on the podium with Zeidler in Paris last year. Logan Ullrich of New Zealand, who won the 2025 World Rowing Cup – Lucerne, is another name to watch in that boat class.
The women’s single sculls is well represented with 20 nations entered. In the absence of the reigning Olympic and World Champion, Karolien Florijn of the Netherlands all eyes will be on new phenomenon Lauren Henry of Great Britain, still unbeaten since she stepped in the single sculls this season.
The men’s four has 19 entries and all eyes will be on the Sinkovic Brothers of Croatia. Martin and Valent, reigning Olympic champions in the Pair, have stepped into the four with another set of brothers, Patrik and Anton Loncaric, and are aiming to capture a 7th World Championship title in a fourth boat class.Competition will be fierce for para rowers too.
The PR3 mixed double sculls has a record 14 entries with lots of new combinations. Kathrin Marchand and Valentin Luz of Germany won the European championships earlier this season in dominating fashion, and will aim to prove their domination on that boat class.
The 2025 World Rowing Championships will see the official debut of the Mixed Double Sculls, which has 11 entries and very interesting combinations. The Mixed Eight, which was featured as a test event at the 2025 World Rowing Cup Varese, will also be part of the programme, with 10 entries, from countries such as Hong Kong China, Switzerland, and Czechia.
Host nation China will be entered in 20 of the 23 boat classes and hoping to get fantastic results in front of their home fans. All eyes will be on the women’s double sculls, where Tokyo 2020 Olympic champions in the women’s quadruple sculls, Yunxia Chen and Ling Zhang, winners of the two World Cups this year, are carrying the nation’s best hopes.
Racing will begin on Sunday, 21 September with heats and progress through to quarterfinals, semifinals, and A-Finals starting on Thursday, 25 September. All races will be livestreamed on worldrowing.com (local restrictions apply).
For a fill list of entries, click here.
The World Rowing media guide will be online (from 20/09/25): www.worldrowing.com/mediacentre
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About the World Rowing Championships
The senior World Rowing Championships are held every year at the end of the international rowing season and World Champions are crowned in 12 Olympic boat classes – six for men and six for women, as well as four International boat classes for lightweight rowers. Para-rowers compete in all five are Paralympic boat classes.The World Rowing Championships were first held in 1962, with women’s championships added in 1974. Para events were contested for the first time at the 2002 World Rowing Championships in Sevilla, Spain.The cancellations of the 2020 and 2021 World Rowing Championships due to the ongoing global pandemic were the first time the event was cancelled.
Read more about the history of the World Rowing Championships here.