Chile and China shine in South American and Asian Games

Chile and China came out on top of the rowing medal standings at the recent South American and Asian Games – the pinnacle multisport events for the two continents.

The Games are both held every four years and feature a host of other sports alongside rowing, making them key targets for national federations and their star athletes.

China Dominate as History Made in Japan

Racing at the Asian Games was compressed into two days after a typhoon swept across Japan, meaning all the finals were raced on one day.

Lightweight men’s double sculls world champions Shakhzod Nurmatov and Sobirjon Safaroliyev doubled down on their historic win in Amsterdam for Uzbekistan with a first-ever title in the same boat class at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games in Japan. Nurmatov and Safaroliyev won bronze at the previous edition of the Asian Games, but took gold on the Nagaragawa International Regatta Course ahead of Indonesia and Hong Kong, China.

Nurmatov said: “These days in our country, we are winning a lot of medals like these. I trust in Uzbekistan that, in the future, it will be stronger than China in rowing. We have many competitive sportsmen and sportswomen. And in the future, we can beat China again.”

Vladislav Yakovlev and Ivan Chernukhin won Kazakhstan’s maiden Asian Games title in any rowing event with gold in the men’s pair, beating Cao Chuang and Yang Mengshuai of China by just over two seconds in a close final.

Iran also made history in Aichi-Nagoya. Fatemeh Mojallaltopraghghale took gold in the lightweight women’s single sculls ahead of Hong Kong’s Winnie Hung; Kimia Zarei and Zeinab Norouzi Tazeh Kand also beat Hong Kong to claim gold in the lightweight women’s double sculls. Iran had never previously won any rowing golds at an Asian Games.

Mojallaltopraghghale added women’s single sculls bronze with Zarei and Norouzi winning women’s double sculls silver, and Iran also won silver in the women’s quadruple sculls and in the lightweight men’s single sculls, to put the nation second on the medal table behind China.

China went away with nine gold medals and one silver. The Chinese men’s four, who won gold at the World Rowing Cup II in Plovdiv and were fourth at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships, edged out Uzbekistan in the last race of the regatta to finish off a strong season. Single scullers Deng Zhiwei – who went on to race at the World Rowing Shanghai Sprints last weekend – and Zhang Xinyu were among the other champions. Zhang beat the defending Asian Games champion Anna Prakaten (UZB) to claim her title.

Deng, who raced the double sculls at the 2026 World Rowing Championships, said: “I rowed the single sculls to test my true ability. It went a bit better than I’d expected, because I managed to achieve the overall results I set out to achieve.”

Chiu Hin Chun (HKG) was the only other non-Chinese champion, winning the lightweight men’s single sculls to complete his set of Asian Games medals after men’s single sculls silver at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games and lightweight men’s single sculls bronze in 2018. Chiu said his experience, which includes several World Rowing Cup medals, was paying off.

“I wanted this very badly because I had to collect all three colours of medals at the Asian Games,” Chiu added.

Abraham Siblings Lead Chilean Charge

In Santa Fe, Argentina, in September, Chile dominated the classic rowing regatta at the South American Games, winning seven gold medals, five silver medals, and a bronze medal. Their efforts were led by quadruplets Antonia, Melita, Ignacio and Alfredo Abraham.

Antonia and Melita backed up their strong World Rowing season with four gold medals – in the women’s pair, four, quadruple sculls and eight – and silver in the mixed eight. Alfredo took gold in the men’s double sculls alongside Antonio Habash, and raced with his brother to win silver in the men’s quadruple sculls and bronze in the men’s eight. Not to be outdone, Ignacio also won silver in the men’s four.

Internationally experienced duo Bruno Cetraro and Felipe Kluver were key for Uruguay, who finished just below Chile on the medal table with six gold medals. Cetraro won the men’s single sculls and Kluver the lightweight men’s single sculls, and Uruguay also took gold in the men’s four, men’s quadruple sculls, men’s eight and mixed eight. Kluver and Cetraro were part of the quad and the men’s eight and also teamed up for silver in the men’s double sculls.

Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Peru all went home with one gold medal apiece.

However, Brazil topped the standings in the beach sprints regatta, after the competition was canceled following the coastal women’s solo races due to aquatic plants snagging on boat equipment. Medals were awarded based on the previous day’s timetrials.

Brazil’s David Faria won gold in both the men’s solo and men’s double sculls, alongside Yan Costa in the latter event, while Vangelys Reinke and Kissya Cataldo took the win in the mixed double sculls. But Pamela Noya won gold in the women’s solo for Peru, beating Paraguay’s Fiorela Rodriguez in the final, and Romina Cetraro and Zoe Acosta were the fastest in the women’s double sculls.