The day began with racing in Paralympic events. Australian PR1 men’s single sculls Paralympic silver medallist Erik Horrie is back on form after missing the 2023 World Rowing Championships final through injury. He sculled through world silver medallist Giacomo Perini in the closing stages of the preliminary race, his first victory over the Italian since Perini’s debut in 2022.

World champions Great Britain in the PR2 mixed double sculls and PR3 mixed coxed four, and Australia in the PR3 mixed double sculls, all looked solid in winning their opening races. Great Britain’s PR3 mixed double sculls European champions joined Australia with direct A-final qualification.

Several reigning Olympic champions are racing in Poznan as they fine-tune their title defences. Among them, the French men’s double sculls crew of Hugo Boucheron and Matthieu Androdias were pushed hard by New Zealanders Jordan Parry and Robbie Manson in their heat, but came out 0.25 seconds ahead to claim the win.

Tokyo Olympic Games men’s pair champions Valent and Martin Sinkovic of Croatia claimed their first win in the boat class since returning to the pair for the 2024 season with a comfortable heat win ahead of Ireland. It was much closer in heat 1, as New Zealanders Daniel Williamson and Philip Wilson pushed Swiss world champions Roman Roeoesli and Andrin Gulich close.

Claire Bove and Laura Tarantola won lightweight women’s double sculls silver for France at the Tokyo Olympic Games, but had to go through the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in Lucerne to earn the right to try and go one better this summer. They looked good winning their heat in Poznan, and afterwards said they were having fun back in the boat.

Other notable results from the first day of racing included an excellent win for Germany’s under-23 men’s quadruple sculls crew, beating Paris-qualified Switzerland and their own senior teammates in their heat. That means Germany 1 have to go through the repechage to make the final.

Australia and New Zealand won the heats of both the men’s and women’s fours, and world single sculls bronze medallists Tara Rigney (Australia) and Tom Mackintosh (New Zealand) both progressed serenely to their respective semifinals.

The day finished with the preliminary races for the women’s and men’s eights, where Australia took both wins – ahead of the Netherlands and Germany, respectively.

Due to adverse weather conditions forecast for tomorrow afternoon, there is to be a change in the race schedule for Saturday. Racing will start at 08:30 CEST and run straight through to conclude with the A-finals of the PR2 single sculls and lightweight single sculls before lunchtime.

Find all results, reactions and tomorrow’s programme on worldrowing.com.