On the final day of the 2026 World Rowing Championships on August 30, the Netherlands turned home advantage into the top place on the medal table, closing the regatta in Amsterdam with victories in both the men’s eight and the mixed double sculls.

The host nation finished with four gold medals, three silvers and three bronzes, a total that made it the most successful team at the championships. The closing session also produced world-best times, photo finishes and several historic firsts as the week-long event ended on a fast course with sold-out grandstands and a large global television audience.

The Dutch men’s eight edged Great Britain by just 0.06 seconds in one of the tightest races of the week, crossing in 5:17.75 to become the first crew in history to break 5:18 in the event. Australia took bronze in 5:18.28, also under the previous benchmark. Later in the session, Simon van Dorp and Roos de Jong added another Dutch victory in the mixed double sculls, where their 6:15.80 effort reset the world-best mark that had already been lowered earlier in the regatta.

The Netherlands’ late surge left Germany with three gold medals and the United States with three golds and six bronzes. Germany’s total included Oliver Zeidler’s fourth world title in the men’s single sculls, which also pushed Germany level with Great Britain at the top of the all-time medal table on 86 golds. Germany now leads the overall standings with 247 World Rowing Championships medals, ahead of Britain’s 225.

The regatta produced a broad spread of winners. Twenty-two of the 64 represented nations came away with at least one medal, and 12 countries won gold. Uzbekistan collected its first-ever World Rowing Championships gold in the lightweight men’s double sculls, while Romania added three golds of its own. Simona Radis and Adriana Adam were central to that Romanian success, first winning the women’s pair and then helping their country to victories in the women’s eight and mixed eight.

Romania’s women’s eight posted an official world-best time of 5:51.88, while the mixed eight defended the title the country had won in Shanghai in 2025. The Dutch and Romanian eights were among 10 crews that successfully defended world titles during the championships.

The final day also brought individual breakthroughs. Britain’s Lauren Henry became the first British woman to win the women’s single sculls title, completing a turnaround from her silver medal in 2025. Britain’s women’s eight also took silver, their nation’s best-ever result in that event.

Elsewhere in the regatta, the United States women’s four had already set a world-best time of 6:09.87 on Saturday, and the tailwind conditions helped three more records fall on Sunday. The championship also marked several firsts beyond the medal table, including the debut senior appearances of Somalia and Syria and the first medal for a Swiss women’s crew boat in the women’s double sculls.

World Rowing said 814 athletes competed in Amsterdam, with the racing watched in more than 200 countries and territories. The organization also highlighted new broadcast features, including onboard cameras that gave viewers closer live coverage of the action.

For the host nation, the closing day made for a clean finish to a successful home championships: two gold medals on Sunday, four in total, and a place at the top of the medal table in front of a home crowd.