First-time gold medallists galore on day 6 of 2025 World Rowing Championships

The second day of finals at the 2025 World Rowing Championships delivered a series of incredible races, crowning a host of new world champions.

Both PR1 single sculls gold medallists picked up their first world titles, as did the USA and Great Britain’s women’s and men’s fours.

Poland’s Miroslaw Zietarski and Mateusz Biskup added men’s double sculls gold to their 2022 men’s quadruple sculls and 2025 European double sculls titles, and the Netherlands won a first-ever World Rowing Championships gold in the women’s double sculls.

Sheremet secures first World Rowing Championships gold

Anna Sheremet, two-time world bronze medallist and 2025 European champion in the PR1 women’s single sculls, finally has a world title at the age of only 24 after dominating the field in Shanghai. Sheremet led from the start and through every timing marker. Behind her, Kim Sejeong (Republic of Korea) claimed silver, her first major championship medal, holding off a determined effort from Shao Shasha (China), who in turn proved faster than Switzerland’s Claire Ghiringhelli. It was Korea’s first-ever World Rowing Championships medal.

Sheremet said: “It was a little hot. I would like to have done a better time, but because of the conditions it was really hard. However, I’m happy to have a World Championship title.”

Results: UKR, KOR, CHN, SUI, EGY, POL

Dominant Pritchard completes the set

After setting a World Rowing Championship best time in the heat, Benjamin Pritchard (Great Britain) did it again in the final, lowering the record by another second to 8:55.65. Pritchard led the field by more than three seconds by 500m in and stretched away to win and complete his set of medals – Paralympic, European, and now world champion. Australia’s Erik Horrie and Ukraine’s Roman Polianskyi were left to scrap it out for silver and bronze, with Polianskyi overturning Horrie’s early advantage to hang on for second place by 1.36 seconds. The three medallists also finished in this order at the Paralympic Games last summer.

Results: GBR, UKR, AUS, ITA, FRA, GER

Rene Campos Pereira of Brazil won the B-final comfortably, ahead of Mexican Michel Munoz.

First gold for Dutch women’s double

Despite their success in sculling events, the Netherlands had never won the women’s double sculls at the World Rowing Championships. That changed on Friday after a thriller of a race where China’s Zhang Ling and Chen Yunxia, and Dutch double Roos de Jong and Benthe Boonstra, were stroke for stroke through the first three-quarters of the race. There was absolutely nothing to pick between the boats until the Dutch started to take a narrow lead coming into the 1500m mark. China responded, but de Jong and Boonstra had slightly more momentum and claimed gold by 0.88 seconds. Behind the leaders, the race for bronze saw France fade in the second half as neutral athletes Tatsiana Klimovich and Alena Furman moved into a solid third place, which they held to the end.

De Jong said: “Today we just wanted to get out really aggressive because in the heats we were a bit slow compared to the Chinese in the beginning, and we were just in the back all the time. We thought we need to stay with them and then maybe in the sprint we can beat them, and that’s exactly what we did.”

Results: NED, CHN, AIN, SUI, FRA, GRE

Zoe Hyde and Margaret Cremen of Ireland were seventh overall after winning the B-final, with the USA second and Uzbekistan third after leading most of the way.

Poland fly to men’s doubles gold

Poland’s Miroslaw Zietarski and Mateusz Biskup claimed Poland’s first-ever world gold medal in the men’s double sculls after an aggressive start that saw them fly out of the blocks. The medal added to the European title they won earlier in the season. Switzerland were the early chasers, but soon dropped back as Serbia and Ireland came into the picture. Indeed Ireland were in silver-medal position at 1500m, but faded a little and the Serbians came through to take silver, the first medal in this event for Serbia. Romania, Olympic champions and the fastest crew in the semifinals, were off the pace throughout and finished sixth.

Biskup said: “Our dreams came true. We didn’t expect that. We knew that we were fast, but we didn’t know that fast, so it’s awesome. Our plan was to quick start and go as fast as we can for the 500 and take the lead. When we are in the lead we see what other crews are doing, and we can row our rowing.”

Results: POL, SRB, IRL, ESP, SUI, ROU

Aleksandr Iakovlev and Andrei Potapkin (AIN) are seventh overall after winning the B-final with an excellent second 1000m. New Zealand were second.

USA execute perfect race for women’s four title

The women’s four final was a race of changing positions. Great Britain took the race on early from lane 1, but started dropping back in the second 500m as the USA moved into rhythm and got their bows in front. They looked to have established a lead that nobody could challenge, but Romania had other ideas and they unleashed the fastest 500m split of the entire race to close two seconds on the USA boat and take a close silver medal. New Zealand also had an impressive last 500m, catching the Netherlands to win bronze.

The USA’s Teal Cohen said: “It’s been a really great season. Azja and Camille, our bow pair over here, won both the World Cups and this, so they went undefeated this year, so shout out to them. We’ve been working really hard, and to see it all come together is awesome.”

Results: USA, ROU, NZL, NED, GBR, CHN

Australia took the B-final victory, ahead of Canada and Ireland.

Friday finishes with men’s four fireworks

Great Britain’s legacy in the men’s four continues with a new crew – who joined two other combinations that had come together for the first time internationally on the podium. But the race was all about the British, whose first half pace was decisive, and took them into a lead that even the Romanian sprint could not overturn. Behind them Romania and the Netherlands fought for silver; the Dutch put out a speedy third quarter but paid for it when it came to the red buoys, when Romania turned on the power and moved into the silver-medal position. 2025 World Rowing Cup winners Australia were never in the contest for the medals.

Great Britain’s James Robson said: “For us it was all about putting together three good races, and we got better each time, which is all we can ask for. Amazing feeling, coming through halfway I was making calls, keeping an eye on the Dutch. As we moved away a little bit in the third 500 I glanced over to my right and saw the Romanians coming, and I thought this is going to be a dogfight right to the end. We needed everything we had today, but it was enough.”

Results: GBR, ROU, NED, LTU, AUS, FRA

Croatia shrugged off a poor semifinal to win the B-final fairly comfortably; New Zealand came in second for eighth place overall.