2025 European Rowing Championships – Men’s Double Preview

Image Credit: World Rowing

Entries: 20

2024 Champions: Marian Florian Enache/Andrei Sebastian Cornea (Romania)

One of the most interesting aspects of this event is the number of former lightweights moving up a weight division. Of the 40 scullers racing in the men’s double, ten competed as lightweights in the last two seasons.

Undoubtedly, the favourites coming into Plovdiv will be the reigning European and Olympic champions, Marian Florian Enache and Andrei Sebastian Cornea of Romania. This duo were untouchable last season, winning the European Rowing Championships by over six seconds. They were both members of the quad in 2023 that won World Rowing Cup bronze and then took the win in the B-final at the World Rowing Championships. Enache raced in this boat class at the Tokyo Olympic Games, finishing ninth with partner Ioan Prundeanu.

Poland’s Miroslaw Zietarski and Mateusz Biskup last raced the double together in 2021, making the A-final of the Tokyo Olympic Games. The previous year, they won the European men’s double title and claimed bronze at the World Rowing Championships. In 2022, they moved into the quad, taking European silver and World Rowing Championship gold. In 2023, they won World and European medals again, taking the European title and bronze at the World Rowing Championships. Last season, as part of the Polish men’s quad, they won two World Rowing Cup medals and then bronze at the European Rowing Championships and the Olympic Games.

One of the most interesting entries comes from Ireland, Fintan McCarthy and Konan Pazzaia. McCarthy has been one of the most outstanding lightweight athletes of the last five years. He partnered with Paul O’Donovan to win lightweight men’s double World Rowing Championship titles in 2019, 2022 and 2023, along with Olympic gold in Tokyo and Paris. His partner, Pazzaia, is an U23 World Champion from 2023 and competed in the quad at the senior World Rowing Championships that year. In 2024, he was Ireland’s representative in the single, delivering seventh and tenth-place finishes at the first and third World Rowing Cup, respectively. A resident of Northern Ireland, he competed for his university, Queen’s University Belfast, at the British University Championships this season, placing third in the championship single.

Another strong lightweight duo are Antonios Papakonstantinou and Petros Gkaidatzis of Greece. This crew won bronze in the lightweight men’s double in Paris and were European bronze medallists in 2023. Papakonstantinou also took silver in the lightweight men’s single at the 2022 and 2024 World Rowing Championships.

Another talented lightweight stepping up to open weight is Raphael Ahumada of Switzerland and Kai Schaetzle joins him. These athletes raced at the Paris Olympic Games, with Ahumada racing the lightweight men’s double to fourth and Schaetzle competing in the ninth-place coxless four. Ahumada (with partner Jan Schaeuble) are the reigning European lightweight men’s double champions, a title they also won in 2023 along with World Rowing Championship silver. Schaetzle was in the coxless four that finished fifth at the 2024 European Rowing Championships. He spent the 2022 season competing in the Swiss quad, which finished fifth in the B-final at the World Rowing Championships. This will be an exciting combination to watch and could be dark horses for a medal.

Spain’s lightweight men’s double from the Paris Olympics, Dennis Carracedo Ferrero and Caetano Xose Horta Pombo remain together and move to the openweight double division. They were eighth at the Olympic Games and fifth at last season’s European Rowing Championships in the lightweight men’s double. In 2023, they finished seventh at the European Rowing Championships and fifth at the World Rowing Championships. Horta Pombo also took U23 World Rowing Championship gold in 2024 and raced at the Tokyo Olympic Games whilst still a teenager, winning the B-final in the lightweight men’s double with partner Manel Balastegui.

France dominated this event during the Tokyo Olympiad, winning the Olympic and European titles in 2021 and then the world title in 2022. That crew consisted of Hugo Boucheron and Matthieu Androdias. Sadly, the Paris Olympiad wasn’t as fruitful for this duo, and they finished up eighth at the home Games. For this season, Androdias has been replaced by Victor Marcelot. The 23-year-old raced in the quad at the 2023 World Rowing Championships, placing second in the B-final. Last season, he raced in the men’s coxless four at the third World Rowing Cup and the double at the European Rowing Championships. He ended his 2024 season with fourth in the coxless four at the U23 World Rowing Championships.

Italy has a duo of talented lightweights, Neils Torre and Gabriel Soares. These athletes have won world titles as lightweights in 2022 – Torre in the quad and Soares in the single. Soares raced at the Paris Olympic Games in the lightweight men’s double with Stefano Oppo, returning with a silver medal. Torre missed out on the Olympic Games but raced in the lightweight men’s single at the World Rowing Championships last season, winning bronze. Surprisingly, for two long-standing members of the Italian lightweight team, this year’s European Rowing Championships will be the first time Torre and Soares have competed in the same boat.

Amongst some of the young talent stepping up to the senior ranks is Czechia’s Martin Jezek and Michal Zindulka. They raced as part of the U23 quad in 2023 and 2024, winning age-group World Rowing Championship silver on both occasions.

Belgium’s double also includes two U23 world champions. Aaron Andries and Tristan Vandenbussche won the U23 men’s double world title together in 2022 and were sixth at the senior European Rowing Championships in 2023. Last season, they again competed at the senior European Rowing Championships, winning the men’s double B-final. Andries went on to race in the single at the U23 World Rowing Championships, coming away with a bronze medal.

Germany continues the U23 theme with its crew, which includes reigning U23 single world champion Timo Strache and Til Schindelhauer, who finished fourth in the quad.

Another crew to watch is Serbia. Their crew of Martin Mackovic and Nikolai Pimenov won the B-final at the Paris Olympic Games. Up until last season, Mackovic had spent most of his racing career in the pair, finishing fifth at the Tokyo Olympic Games and winning a number of World Rowing Cup medals. Pimenov raced in the single at the 2023 European and World Rowing Championships, finishing in the B-final on both occasions.

Great Britain have only ever won one medal in this boat class at the European Rowing Championships (bronze in 2021). This season’s crew are part of the GB “Project LA” squad, with former U23 world champion and Oxford Blue, Tobias Schroeder, joined by Jamie Gare. Gare raced at the U23 European Rowing Championships in 2022, finishing fourth in the double with Cedol Dafydd (outside of World Rowing events, this duo saw success at Henley Royal Regatta, Duisburg and the Holland Beker). An A-final finish would be a brilliant result for this young duo, but I think the top end of the B-final is more likely.

Prediction

It’s hard to opt against the reigning Olympic champions from Romania to take the gold, but it’s going to be an interesting battle behind them for the minor placings. I’m going for Poland in silver and the Italians in bronze.