Look ahead: What to expect at the European Rowing Championships in Plovdiv
Louise Kingsley, Director of Performance for GB Rowing Team outlines key stats and insights ahead of the 2025 European Rowing Championships
Credit: Benedict Tufnell
The 2025 European Rowing Championships take place in Plovdiv, Bulgaria from 29 May to 1 June. The venue, nestled in one of Europe’s oldest cities, will see 517 athletes competing from 32 countries, with the biggest contingents coming from Germany, Great Britain, Romania, Netherlands and Italy.
Our Great Britain team comprises thirty-nine athletes racing in thirteen out of the seventeen Olympic and Paralympic class events offered, with eleven in Olympic class and two in Paralympic. We also have a staff team of 20 including nine coaches.
As it is a ‘Championship’ event each nation can only enter one crew per event, the same as a World Championships but different to World Cups.
“Repechages are now eliminated, meaning every crew has to row flat out unless you are in a pre qualifying position!”
Within our squad we have twelve athletes who are Paris Olympic and Paralympic returners with the remainder a product of our ‘Project LA’ programme. Many of these will be making their European Championships debut.
The Men’s single sculls has the highest number of entries with 24, with Aidan Thompson representing Great Britain. The PR1 Men’s Single Sculls sees Paris 2024 Paralympic champion, and proud Welshman, Benjamin Pritchard competing against Roman Polianskyi of Ukraine and Giacomo Perini of Italy – this was the podium for the 2024 European Championships in Szeged last year.
Great Britain will see our Women’s Four and Women’s Pair doubling up with the reserves into the Women’s Eight. The Romanians have won the last eight European Championships titles in the Eight, and with five Olympic champions from Paris returning in their flagship boat, they will be the crew to beat.
This event will also feature the highly anticipated debut of Martin and Valent Sinkovic of Croatia in the Men’s Four, with another set of brothers, Patrik and Anton Loncaric. The Sinkovic brothers have a collection of Olympic medals, won in three different boat classes: a silver in the Men’s Quadruple Sculls from London 2012, a gold in the Men’s Double Sculls from Rio 2016, and two gold medals in the Men’s Pair, from Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024.
Also one to watch will be the Dutch Men’s Eight which will be coxed by a former British Rowing employee… we wish the best of luck to Jonna DeVries!
Don’t forget that there is also a big change to racing this season. Earlier this year, World Rowing adopted a new race progression system: the first two crews from each heat will progress directly to the next round of racing. The remaining spots for the next round will be filled with the fastest qualifying times from the heats; This means repechages are now eliminated, meaning every crew has to row flat out unless you are in a pre qualifying position which should lead to some interesting races!
Finally, In 2024, Great Britain was crowned the best nation in Europe with a dominant performance in Szeged, Hungary, which saw us top the medal table with eight golds, one silver, and one bronze.
Racing begins on Thursday 29 May with heats, and will continue through to semi-finals, with finals on Saturday 31 May and Sunday 1 June.
Saturday and Sunday racing will be live streamed on www.worldrowing.com.
