"VAN" (Sports Desk - 23.09.2025) :: The second day of racing at the 2025 World Rowing Championships saw another eight boat classes get underway.
Great Britain’s Benjamin Pritchard became the first rower to set a record at the 2025 World Rowing Championships on Monday, as racing continued to be fast and furious in Shanghai.
Paralympic champion Pritchard broke the World Championship best time in his heat of the PR1 men’s single sculls, lowering the marker previously set by defending world champion Roman Polianskyi (Ukraine) in 2023 from 8:59.60 to 8:56.14.
Both scullers, alongside Paralympic bronze medallist Erik Horrie (Australia) and 2023 world silver medallist Giacomo Perini (Italy) will race for the world title on Friday.
Elsewhere on day 2, the men’s and women’s double sculls and men’s and women’s fours all produced tight racing, with sprint finishes securing several crews a spot in the next round. Greece’s women’s double sculls crew of Evangelia Anastasiadou and Zoi Fitsiou seemed out of the running in their heat of the women’s double sculls, but their sprint took them into contention and they qualified for Friday’s final as the sixth fastest boat.
Romania’s Olympic champions, Andrei Cornea and Marian Enache, did not have the strongest early season, finishing second to Poland at the 2025 European Rowing Championships but 12th at World Rowing Cup Lucerne. They seem to be back on form, posting the fastest time (6:11.88) in the heats, but the European champions Miroslaw Zietarski and Mateusz Biskup were not far off.
In the men’s four, the 2025 World Rowing Cup winners Australia found themselves beaten by the new British combination, who were impressive in setting the fastest time through to the semifinals. Meanwhile, only five seconds split the six women’s fours finalists in the heats, and Australia missed out on the final by 0.3 seconds with hosts China claiming the sixth spot.
Finishing the day, the men’s and women’s single sculls heat times were also tightly clustered at the top. Just 0.18 seconds split women’s single sculls European champion Lauren Henry (Great Britain) from Olympic bronze medallist Viktorija Senkute (Lithuania), with each sculler winning her heat.
Olympic and world champion Oliver Zeidler makes his first appearance on the World Rowing circuit this season, but the German looked good winning heat 4 of the men’s single sculls. However, Olympic bronze medallist Simon van Dorp (Netherlands) posted the fastest time in heat 1 (6:43.03), nearly two seconds ahead of Zeidler. Both progressed straight to the quarterfinals, alongside Olympic silver medallist Yauheni Zalaty (AIN).
Racing in Shanghai continues on Tuesday from 10:05 local time (UTC +8), with heats of the lightweight men’s and women’s single sculls, plus the first semifinals and minor finals.
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