Daily digest: Intensity picks up on day 2 in Duisburg

Adverse weather conditions forced a change in schedule for day 2 of the 2026 World Rowing Under 23 Championships in Duisburg, with all the semifinals taking place on Friday alongside finals C and D. Calmer conditions with a slight tailwind made the athletes happy, and close racing suggests the weekend’s finals will be thrilling.

Exciting pairs races open semifinals

The semifinals opened with the under 23 women’s pairs. In semifinal 1, Australia showed their dominance, winning comfortably and crossing the line rating 27 stroke a minute. In semifinal 2 neutral athletes Ekaterina Guseva and Elena Lushina led from the buzzer, but the race for second and third was fierce throughout. France managed to outsprint Great Britain on the line with a blistering 1:45.5 final 500m – the fastest split of the entire field throughout the race.

In the men’s pairs, Great Britain were a little slow out of the start but stayed in touch with Australia and their last 500m gave them a comfortable lead. A delighted Belgium claimed third. Greece won the second semifinal, with Romania taking second ahead of Italy.

Defending champions win doubles semifinals

Greece’s women and Italy’s men won their respective under 23 double sculls semifinals, to ensure they get a chance to defend their 2025 titles. Behind the Greek women, Poland overcame damage sustained in the warm-up – losing their bowball in a collision with the bank – to take second, with France third. AIN2, Lithuania and Australia qualified from semifinal 2.

Josef Marvucic and Marco Prati (ITA) bounced back from a poor heat to win semifinal 2 of the men’s event, after a good tussle with Türkiye and Ireland. Portugal won semifinal 1, emerging in front of the pack after a tight opening 1000m, with Germany second and Romania third.

British fours continue winning ways

Both of the British under 23 fours won their semifinals, but the USA set the fastest time in the two semifinals of the women’s event – crossing the line eight seconds clear of Romania and South Africa. Great Britain beat the Netherlands and Spain.

The British men’s four’s even pace gave them the win in the second semifinal, despite a strong finish from China and Romania behind them. Australia won the first semifinal in front of the USA and South Africa.

Men’s quads set up for exciting final

Just 0.1 seconds in time split the winners of the two under 23 men’s quadruple sculls semifinals, Great Britain and Germany, with the rest of the field split by only another couple of seconds. Defending champions Czechia sneaked into the final after holding on to third against Australia, with AIN2 sandwiched between them and Germany. Poland took second behind Great Britain and Switzerland were third in their semifinal.

Portuguese men’s singles in pole position

Diogo Goncalves and Joao Veloso (POR) won their semifinals of the under 23 men’s single sculls and lightweight men’s single sculls, respectively, both in the faster times of the events. The Italian and Greek scullers also progressed safely to the final in both events; Greek openweight Nikolaos Cholopoulos managed to hold off Spain’s Mikel Mardaras in the last 500m. The first of the BM1x semifinals was delayed, and it was August Wisholm (DEN) who won the race, just ahead of defending champion Cevdet Ege Mutlu (TUR). Jesse Ilsemann (GER) took a popular third.