After watching their teammates compete across the first four days of racing in Shanghai, the women’s and men’s eights began their World Rowing Championships on Thursday in humid, headwind conditions.

Thursday’s morning session also featured the PR3 mixed double sculls heats and semifinals for the lightweight single sculls and the men’s double sculls, the latter event delayed from Wednesday.

Joy and disappointment for German eights

While Great Britain celebrated heat wins in both the men’s and women’s eights, there was a mixed picture for the other heavyweight nation in this boat class, Germany. The German women’s eight led Great Britain through most of their race to secure second place and their first spot in a World Rowing Championship final since 2009. In contrast, the German men’s eight, long their flagship boat, were dropped by the Netherlands and the USA off the start and could never make up the distance.

Australia’s men had a sensational first 500m in heat 1, but reigning champions Great Britain soon moved through to take first place while Italy surged to second. Australia still qualify for the final alongside Poland, while Germany’s time in heat 2 was too slow to put them through. It is only the third time in 35 years that the Deutschlandachter has failed to make a men’s eight final at the World Rowing Championships (after 1990 and 2022).

On the women’s side, Romania posted the fastest time, winning heat 1 in 6:23.65 ahead of the Netherlands and Australia. The USA were third in heat 2 behind Great Britain and Germany, and also progress.

Dominance and a photofinish in lightweight singles

Although the three leading crews in semifinal 2 of the lightweight women’s single sculls – Kenia Lechuga (Mexico), Siobhan McCrohan (Ireland) and Mariia Zhovner (AIN) were clearly in the qualification positions, each woman was keen to get her bows in front across the line. Lechuga’s lead vanished in the closing metres, with McCrohan grabbing pole position in the final by 0.04 seconds. Lechuga took second, 0.08 seconds ahead of Zhovner. The USA’s Michelle Sechser won semifinal 1 in the fastest time, 8:01.20.

Austrian Julian Schoeberl was again the quickest sculler in the lightweight men’s single sculls, winning semifinal 1 comfortably ahead of Fabio Kress (Germany) and Gu Jianto (China). Felipe Kluver (Uruguay) took the win in semifinal 2, with world under 23 champion Halil Kaan Koroglu (Türkiye) second and Jake McCarthy (Ireland) rowing through the fast-starting Uzbek Shakhzod Nurmatov in the sprint.

PR3 mixed doubles finally underway

With 13 entrants, the PR3 mixed double sculls were racing not to be eliminated as well as for heat wins. Australia, Great Britain and Germany won each of the three heats, and Mexico were the slowest boat and will not race again. After stunning with a blistering time at the 2025 European Rowing Championships, Germany’s Kathrin Marchand and Valentin Luz were the fastest qualifiers for the semifinals, some 6.5 seconds quicker than Great Britain in the previous heat.

Delayed men’s double sculls semifinals excite

After yesterday’s postponement the men’s double sculls had another slight delay for the lanes to be reallocated, with the fastest crews in lane 6 to account for a cross headwind. Semifinal 1 went according to the playbook, with Olympic champions Romania, Andrei Cornea and Marian Enache, leading out from the outside lane and posting the quickest time of the two races, 6:31.08. Ireland stuck with them throughout to finish second, with Spain third and Italy’s former lightweights unable to close the gap.

Serbia won semifinal 2, 0.61 seconds ahead of the Polish European champions. Switzerland rowed a good race to take third place, with New Zealand’s efforts to catch them not enough.

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