"VAN" (Sports Desk - 27.07.2026) :: The 2026 World Rowing Under 23 Championships in Duisburg, Germany, ended on a high on Sunday with 10 more closely contested A-finals.
Greece and the USA both won two more gold medals to add to those secured on Saturday. As Greece also had two silver medals, to the USA’s one silver and one bronze, they ended the championships on top of the medal table.
Greece’s Dimitra Kontou and Phoebe Wise, Claire van Praagh, Ella Wheeler and Annika Jeffery (USA) were the most successful athletes of the regatta, all collecting two gold medals. Kontou won the inaugural under 23 mixed double sculls alongside Konstantinos Giannoulis to add to her under 23 women’s double sculls title. The USA women were gold medallists in both the under 23 women’s four and the first-ever under 23 mixed eight.
Greece added victory in the under 23 lightweight women’s double sculls, for a fourth championships in a row.
Portugal also celebrated a superb regatta, as Joao Veloso (under 23 lightweight men’s single sculls) and Diogo Goncalves (under 23 men’s single sculls) added world titles to that won by the under 23 men’s double sculls on Saturday.
Great Britain continued their incredible winning streak in the under 23 men’s eight, claiming a seventh win in a row in this boat class to give their nation a third gold medal. But the British women’s eight could not defend their title, as the USA collected their 12th win in 20 editions of the event. The USA have never once missed the podium in this boat class.
Hosts Germany won two titles on the closing day. Nathalie Sendjuk opened the racing with a win in the under 23 lightweight women’s single sculls, and Naveen Alexander Shah and Maximilian Ruehling upgraded their 2025 under 23 lightweight men’s double sculls silver to gold a little later.
Several nations won their first-ever medals in a variety of boat classes. Bianca-Camelia Ifteni’s win in the under 23 women’s single sculls was Romania’s first medal in that event; Peru, Kazakhstan, Serbia and Spain also reached the podium in events they had never previously won medals in. In total, 19 nations won medals in Duisburg.
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