“I love going out and putting on a show”: Day two of the World Rowing Championships

Seven crews took to the water on day two of the World Rowing Championships 2025

The Women’s single sculls, Men’s four and PR1 Men’s single sculls all won their respective heats.

European and World Cup Champion Lauren Henry continued her unbeaten run in the Women’s single sculls (W1x) progressing to the semi-final with a clear water finish. “It was a solid first race,” she said, adding “there’s always bits I can work on and improve, but I thought I controlled the race from start to finish. I think singles are a very mental game as well. And I think, the better I do, the more confidence I get, the more momentum I have. But more than anything I just really, really enjoy doing it. I love racing. I love tough racing. I love going out and putting on a show and I’m really grateful to be doing what I love. I’m having the most amazing time doing it at the moment.”

It was a confident race from the Men’s four (M4-) of Dan Graham, James Robson, Douwe de Graaf and George Bourne, who led from the start to take a comfortable win ahead of Australia. It was the first time this new crew raced internationally, and they recorded the fastest time across the heats.

James said: “We had a pretty clear idea of what we wanted to do. We’re a fairly new combination, so we’re still getting used to racing with each other. We went out very calmly in the first half and stepped on in the second half to finish.” George added: “We were confident in what we could do, and it all fell into place. It was a good start for us.”

Paralympic and European Champion Benjamin Pritchard was dominant in his PR1 Men’s single sculls (PR1 M1x) heat, leading from the start and crossing the finish line in a World Championship best time of 8:56.14. He said: “It’s been a mixed bag in the acclimatisation here, because it’s been a mixture of being so hot, and getting used to that, and then the jet lag, and then the last 2 days were pretty cool and now today it’s 30 degrees! But it was interesting to go racing in some hot temperatures and I’m happy with the result.”

It was a nail-biting wait for the Women’s four (W4-) of Lauren Irwin, Eve Stewart, Heidi Long and Megan Slabbert who were third in the heat and needed to wait for confirmation that their time would be fast enough to progress to the A final. Eve said: “It was such fun to get out racing again. It feels like it’s been quite a long time since Lucerne. But we’ve had a lot of fun training, and I feel like we’ve got a lot to give, so it was nice to get out there and blow the cobwebs off.” Commenting on the wait to find out if they were in the A final, Lauren said: “We got off the pontoon and we didn’t know if we’d qualified or not. We were all waiting to hear if we’d made it and then it came over the tannoy that GB had qualified, and we were all hugging each other! It was a relief and a very proud moment.”

Tom Barras, was third in the Men’s single sculls (M1x) and is through to the quarter finals. After the race he said: “It was nice to go and race side by side but I’m not sure I quite executed the pattern and didn’t get the rhythm I wanted. It’s a good start, but hopefully there’s a bit more still to come.”

The Men’s double sculls (M2x) will race the C final after Aidan Thompson and Tobias Schröder narrowly missed out on time, with a third place finish in their heat. The Women’s double sculls (W2x) of Lucy Glover and Cam Nyland will race the B final, after a fifth place finish in the heat.

Racing continues until 28 September and is live streamed on WorldRowing.com. You can also follow the GB Rowing Team instagram for daily updates from China.