Rain fails to dampen spirits on day 5 in Amsterdam

Delays to the second session of racing thanks to thunderstorms rolling over the Bosbaan failed to prevent another exciting day of finals at the 2026 World Rowing Championships on Friday. Three crews defended their titles, and the Dutch won their first gold medal – but Ireland spoiled the orange party with a brilliant win in the women’s double sculls.

Romania dominate for Radis’s sixth title

Simona Radis is fast racking up the gold medals, and amid the Bosbaan rain she won her sixth world title alongside Adriana Adam, who took her third. The Romanians were challenged by Italy early on, but soon stretched out their lead and were unstoppable as they set a World Rowing Championships best time of 6:49.86. France and the USA both rowed through a tiring Italy to claim the minor medals – a second silver in a row for the French duo of Emma Cornelis and Hezekia Peron.

Results: ROU, FRA, USA, ITA, CZE, CHI

Radis said: “It was a tough one and a good one. I think it wasn’t perfect, but it’s good for us because we improved a lot since the Europeans.”

Second gold in a row for New Zealand

Oliver Welch and Benjamin Taylor (NZL) defended their men’s pair world title in style, charging out of the blocks and not giving anyone else a look-in. Australia’s Angus Dawson and Alex Hill proved the best of the rest of the field, moving clearly into second place in the second 500m and holding on into the line. European champions Romania brought the fight to the race, holding on to third until about 1700m when Italy’s Matteo Lodo and Giovanni Codato caught them to claim bronze.

Results: NZL, AUS, ITA, ROU, ESP, LTU

Taylor said: “It was the goal at the start of the season, and I feel that we stayed in that direction the whole way, but there’s always one last race that can knock you over. We were pretty confident during the week that we could do it. But you never know on the day, so we’re pretty stoked to get it done.”

2025 results repeat with another win for Germany

Gold, silver and bronze in the PR3 mixed double sculls went the same way as in 2025, with another dominant performance from Valentin Luz and Kathrin Marchand (GER). They took open water by 500m and extended their lead down the track. Behind them, Ukraine and Australia had got themselves firmly into second and third. Despite a determined effort from Ella Marshall and Sam Stunell (AUS), Stanislav Samoliuk and Dariia Kotyk (UKR) held on for another silver medal after 2025.

Results: GER, UKR, AUS, BRA, CHN, UZB

Marchand said: “Winning is always fun. I’m very happy that we defend our world title. It’s different if you defend the title than if you win it the first time, but we managed to continue our winning streak.”

Twellaar and van Dorp take first home gold for the Dutch

The anticipated men’s double sculls final saw the Netherlands and Serbia soon establish themselves as the leaders. Martin Mackovic and Nikolaj Pimenov (SRB) stuck with Melvin Twellaar and Simon van Dorp (NED) for the first 1000m, but the Netherlands’ halfway push took them into a much more substantial lead to secure gold. Serbia took silver for a second year in a row. Behind them, Great Britain were initially in a comfortable bronze medal position, but a crab at about 1200m proved devastating, and Belgium’s Aaron Andries and Tibo Vyvey claimed a historic first-ever medal in this boat class.

Results: NED, SRB, BEL, ESP, GBR, CZE

Van Dorp said: “The past couple of months I feel like every week we’ve improved and gotten better and better, and it’s really nice to finish up the season like this, with a very good race and to come away with the world title at home is incredibly special.”

Delight for Ireland, heartbreak for the Netherlands

Ireland prevented double gold in the double sculls on the Bosbaan, and the Netherlands from defending their women’s double sculls title, with a perfect row to take gold. Roos de Jong and Benthe Boonstra (NED) led the race out, but Ireland’s biggest margin behind was only ever half a second. When Zoe Hyde and Mags Cremen (IRL) moved at 1750m the Dutch could not respond, and Ireland took victory by a second, their first gold medal in this boat class. Behind them Salome Ulrich and Fabienne Schweizer rowed a solid race for Switzerland’s first-ever women’s double sculls medal at the World Rowing Championships.

Results: IRL, NED, SUI, POL, CAN, ITA

Hyde said: “I just remember it was so tight the whole way. But we just have had such trust in ourselves, we have developed such an amazing partnership that I just trust Mags to the end, she trusts me to the end, so I think we just kept on believing and believing in ourselves.”

Single sculls semifinalists set

The single sculls quarterfinals saw most of the pre-regatta favourites progress. In the men’s event, all three of last year’s medallists – Stefanos Ntouskos (GRE), Oliver Zeidler (GER) and Yauheni Zalaty (AIN2) move on to the semifinals. Ntouskos, however, was third in his race, which was won well by Jonas Slettemark Juel (NOR).

In the women’s single sculls Olympic champion Karolien Florijn set off hard to test 2025 silver medallist Lauren Henry (GBR). The British sculler’s characteristic strong second half paid off and she caught Florijn soon after 1600m, after which Florijn took the pressure off and paddled it in. World champion Fiona Murtagh (IRL) looked good winning her quarterfinal too. But 2025 bronze medallist Frida Sangaard Nielsen (DEN) misses out on the semifinals, coming in fourth behind Murtagh, Aurelia-Maxima Janzen (SUI) and Tara Rigney (AUS).

Para singles end Friday racing

After being shifted to the end of the day due to the weather, the PR1 men’s single sculls semifinals were the last event on the water. Javier Garcia (ESP) was the big surprise, seizing third in semifinal 1 after rowing down European bronze medallist Shmuel Daniel (ISR) in the last 500m. Otherwise, racing went by the form book: defending champion Benjamin Pritchard (GBR) beat Giacomo Perini (ITA), and Erik Horrie (AUS) won the second semifinal ahead of Roman Polianskyi (UKR) and Alexis Sanchez (FRA).