Men’s quad and Women’s pair into A finals
Emotions high for GB on first semi final day at World Rowing Championships
Tuesday 23 September 2025 – Great Britain has reached two more A finals at the World Rowing Championships in Shanghai, with the Men’s quadruple sculls and the Women’s pair joining the Women’s four, Women’s quadruple sculls and PR1 Men’s single sculls who qualified earlier in the week.
Current European Men’s quadruple sculls (M4x) champions, Cedol Dafydd, Callum Dixon, Matt Haywood and Rory Harris were with the pack but pulled ahead at the 1km and then held off the charging Poles to win their semi final. Rory said: “Semi-finals are a hard one, especially when you’ve won your heat, it could be a bit of a banana skin race, ready to catch you off guard, but trust in this crew is really high and I’m happy that we’re into the World Championships final. It’s the biggest event we go to, but we’ve had a really good season, and the Europeans and World Cups have given us a stepping stone to this.”
Cedol added: “We always go out and race to our best ability. At the end of the day, you’ve got to get to the line first. That’s our aim, every time we race and the final won’t be any different. We trust our coach, we trust each other and hopefully the result will take care of itself. To win a race you have to work really hard. And when you win the race, it’s all enjoyment and I’ve enjoyed this season with the boys a lot.”
Lizzie Witt and Jade Lindo put in a mammoth sprint finish to take the third place spot and qualify for the Women’s pair (W2-) A final. Together they dedicated their performance to a University friend who tragically passed away in 2019. Jade said: “That was pretty, pretty special and I’m very emotional. That one, that race right there was for Katie Benson. We got it done for Katie.”
Clearly emotional, the pair were also confident in their approach to the finish. Lizzie said: “We always knew we had a sprint, and it was important to keep calm and keep it together and send it to the line. We’re really excited to make the A final. That was a big goal for us coming into the competition. The standard is high so it just feels special to be able to say we’ve made it to that stage, and we’re excited to see what we can do in two days’ time.”
James Vogel and Harry Geffen started well in the Men’s pair (M2-) semi final but couldn’t keep momentum and finished in sixth place. They will look to continue to build their senior international experience in the B final.
Racing continues each day until 28 September and is live streamed on WorldRowing.com. You can also follow the GB Rowing Team instagram for daily updates from China.
