"VAN" (Sports Desk - 27.09.2025) :: A total of five different nations – and 11 first-time world champion athletes – took gold medals home after a thrilling day of racing at the 2025 World Rowing Championships on Friday.
Rowing powerhouse Great Britain is now leading the medal standings with two gold medals and two silvers.
The Netherlands added a second gold medal to their women’s quadruple sculls title won on Thursday, as well as a bronze in the men’s four; China also added women’s double sculls silver and a bronze, in the PR1 women’s single sculls, to go with their two lightweight double sculls gold medals.
The race of the day was undoubtedly the women’s double sculls final between the Dutch double of Roos de Jong and Benthe Boonstra, who took China’s Zhang Ling and Chen Yunxia on from the buzzer and never let up. It was stroke for stroke between the two crews until the Dutch push coming into the 1500m line, which gave them enough of a lead to claim victory by 0.88 seconds.
Remarkably, after Olympic silver and bronze, three World Rowing Championships silver medals and one world bronze medal, this was a first-ever major title for de Jong. It was also the Netherlands’ first world gold medal in the women’s double sculls.
Poland also picked up a first-ever double sculls gold medal as Miroslaw Zietarski and Mateusz Biskup added the world title to their European title, with a dominant row; the duo won gold in the men’s quadruple sculls in 2022.
PR1 single sculls gold medallists Anna Sheremet (Ukraine) and Benjamin Pritchard (Great Britain) were also first-time world champions on Friday, both winning their finals convincingly. Pritchard completed his ‘Project Undisputed’, which makes him reigning Paralympic, world and European champion.
His teammates in the men’s four also took home gold, retaining the title for Great Britain but winning their first individual championship medals. And the USA women’s four took gold after withstanding an incredible Romanian sprint, to also win their first World Rowing Championships titles.
Racing at the Shanghai Water Sports Centre continues on Saturday, with B-finals from 13:05 local time (UTC +8) followed by A-finals from 14:05 local time in the PR2 mixed double sculls, PR3 mixed coxed four, lightweight women’s and men’s single sculls, and women’s and men’s eights.
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