Last semifinals in Shanghai set up Sunday finals

Friday’s racing at the 2025 World Rowing Championships kicked off with the last semifinals, ahead of three exciting days of finals still to come.

Henry and Murtagh set up close final

The story in the women’s single sculls all season has been about the growing rivalry between Lauren Henry (Great Britain) and Fiona Murtagh (Ireland), and that looks set to intensify in Sunday’s World Rowing Championship final. The two scullers posted similar times in winning their semifinals of the women’s single sculls, both rowing through faster-starting opponents to move into clear-water leads on the line. In semifinal 1, Frida Sanggaard Nielsen (Denmark) took second while Alexandra Foester (Germany) produced a good second half to qualify in third. Lithuanian Viktorija Senkute was second behind Murtagh, while Esther Briz (Spain) held on against Canadian Katie Clark’s closing sprint for third.

Zeidler in control, Uruguay in final

Defending men’s single sculls champion Oliver Zeidler (Germany) cruised to victory in his semifinal, looking back on a battle for second place which went to Simon van Dorp (Netherlands) in a photofinish over Greek Stefanos Ntouskos, who challenged van Dorp hard in the closing quarter. In semifinal 2, Lithuanian Giedrius Bieliauskas led to 1500m but European champion Yauheni Zalaty (AIN) gradually closed the gap and took the win, ahead of Bruno Cetraro, who became Uruguay’s first men’s single sculls finalist since 1989. Bieliauskas clung on for third despite the sprint from New Zealander Logan Ullrich.

Germany and Great Britain win PR3 mixed doubles semis

Germany and Great Britain were the comfortable winners of the two PR3 mixed double sculls semifinals, posting similar times – but Kathrin Marchand and Valentin Luz of Germany really took their foot off the gas in the last 500m, and remain the clear favourites for the world title on Sunday. Ukraine and France were the qualifiers behind Germany, with the new French double exceeding their aims of top eight; Australia and the AIN crew complete the final line-up.