By Rupert Guinness with the Rowsellas in Shanghai
Erik Horrie OAM PLY showed he is still one of Australia’s greatest rowers by winning Bronze in the Men’s PR1 Single Sculls at the 2025 World Rowing Championships.
In his 15th year on the Australian rowing team, Horrie, 45, is a triple Paralympic medallist and a five-times World Championships winner.
His medal win at the world titles in Shanghai on Friday was also the first for the Rowsellas in the regatta that ends on Sunday.
Australia had two boats in A-Finals on Friday that saw sweltering conditions with 30 degree-plus temperatures. Australia was also in the Men’s Four A-Final, where they placed fifth.
Horrie was deservedly proud for winning Bronze, a feat that also augurs well for the future with the 2028 Paralympic Games on the horizon.
“I would definitely have liked one of the [medals] further up, but third in this quality field is certainly an honour,” Horrie said. “Any medal representing Australia means a lot.”
Great Britain’s Paralympic champion Benjamin Pritchard (8:55.65) won the Gold medal after leading from the start off a quick start.
The Ukraine’s Roman Polyianski (9:02.74) placed second to claim the Silver, while Horrie (9:04.10) finished third for the Bronze.
Racing in Lane 4, Horrie, who had won his Heat to qualify for the A-Final, enjoyed a strong start.
Pritchard got an early jump, but Horrie settled into second place early. While he was passed by Polyianski in the second 500m, he still pushed the Ukranian to the finish.
On how the race unfolded for him with Polyasnki’s move, Horrie said: “I knew what I had to do. I just let it off that that little bit too much going through that second 500m and paid for it coming through the 1000 and didn’t quite have enough at the end.”
Meanwhile, in the Men’s Four A-Final, the Australian crew of Nikolas Pender, Fergus Hamilton OLY, Austin Reihehr and Alexander Hill OAM finished in fifth place.
The race was won by Great Britain (5:48.48), from Romania (5:50.56) and the Netherlands ((5:52.01), followed by Lithuania (5:53.54).
Australia (5:58.60), racing in Lane 1, were slow out of the start and in fourth place after 1000m, but by 1500m they had dropped to fifth, beating France (6:01.10) in sixth.
In other races on Day Six:
The PR3 Mixed Double Sculls Semi-Final saw Lisa Greissel and Sam Stunnell, racing in Lane 3, qualify well for Sunday’s A-Final by placing second behind Great Britain.
Great Britain (7:24.11) led from the start, but with the top three making the A-Final, Australia (7:26.81) was well clear of third placed AIN (7:31.90) to comfortably qualify.
In the Women’s Single Sculls Semi-Final, Under 23 Worlds medallist Romy Cantwell was sixth after leading at 500m. She missed the A-Final and will race Sunday’s B-Final.
In the Women’s Four B-Final, Emmie Frederico, Eliza Gaffney, Georgina Rowe OLY and Jacqueline Swick OLY won well from Canada and Denmark for a regatta ranking of seventh.
In the Men’s Double Sculls B-Final, Oscar McGuinness and Mitchell Reinhard placed sixth in the B-Final for a ranking of 12th.
Australian Crews Racing Tomorrow – Day 7
17.05 (AEST) – Women’s Eights A-Final: Hayley Verbunt OLY (Cox), Paige Barr OLY, Jaime Ford, Laura Gourley OLY, Zara Collisson, Ella Bramwell, Sophie Houston, Katherine Easton, Georgie Gleeson
17.18 (AEST) - Men’s Eights A-Final: Nicholas Dunlop (Cox), Patrick Long, Angus Dawson OLY, Alex Nichol, Harry Manton, Marcus Emmett, Jack Robertson OLY, Alexander McClean, Mitch Salisbury
How to Follow the 2025 World Rowing Championships
Here is how to follow the event on mobile, tablet, or desktop:
The provisional time table for the events can be found here and entries for all the events can be found here.
Live race tracker and LIVE audio will be available for ALL races on www.worldrowing.com.
LIVE video streaming will be available on the World Rowing website, Foxtel, and Kayo Sports from Sunday September 21 from 12.00 AEST. The video streaming will start 5 minutes before the first race.