Earlier in the day, Belgium's Ward Lemmelijn and the Czech Republic's Pavlína Flamíková won the 23-39 2000m races. Finland's Joel Naukkarinen and the USA's Elizabeth Gilmore successfully defended their Versa Challenge titles with performances that showed strength and consistency throughout the weekend. Both went into the final challenge, the Chase, in the lead and were able to look back on their opponents as they cruised to comfortable victories. 

In the men's competition, the day saw several changes in the standings, but it was Great Britain's Cameron Buchan and Poland's Maciej Zawojski who came away with silver and bronze respectively, with Zawojski securing the medal with a strong final piece in the Chase. The women's podium was completed by Great Britain's Charlotte Dixon and Jessica Eddie. Three-time Olympian Eddie, who had been given a wild card for the Versa Challenge, showed why she had earned her place with a fantastic sprint to overtake Morgan McGrath for bronze. 

In the men's 23-39 2000m event, Belgium's Ward Lemmelijn was determined not only to reclaim his World Indoor Rowing title, but also to break Josh Dunkley-Smith's world record of 5:35.8. He achieved the former, winning decisively in 5:43.2, but missed the latter.

The Czech Republic won gold and silver in the women's 23-39 2000m. Pavlína Flamíková's training had been disrupted by a car accident earlier in the season, but she bounced back impressively to win the women's 23-39 2000m in 6:47.6, ahead of compatriot Anna Šantrůčková and early leader Kathryn Mole of Great Britain. Other Czech medals included silver in the men's lightweight 23-39 2000m. Jiri Simanek was the defending champion, but was unable to catch Germany's Florian Roller (racing virtually) in the final 500m. Roller won in 6:09.7, with Simanek clocking a personal best of 6:10.9 to take silver. 

Germany's Alexandra Föster has already shone on the world stage with world U19 and U23 titles in the women's single sculls and success at senior level too. Competing virtually, she added gold in the women's 21-22 2000m category with a controlled, evenly-paced row in a time of 6:48.4 - adding to her U19 title from 2020. 

Three records were set during the race: Egypt's Alaa Ibrahim won the men's PR1 500m in 1:43.1, a world record for the 30-39 age group in this category; Denmark's Merete Boldt broke her own world record, rowing a 1:55.1 for women aged 75-79; and Great Britain's Valerie Coleman set a record for heavyweight women aged 95-99, finishing in 2:57.8. World Rowing Indoor Commission member Eric Murray, himself a former world record holder in several indoor rowing events, said the weekend had showed how the sport is growing through innovation. 

"There is a very good appetite for the sport of indoor rowing. You can give it a very good five-star rating for what it is. People were engaged and you saw them coming back to the stands to watch the Versa event because it is different," said Murray. 

"There are a lot of different things that you can do with indoor rowing. The people around, you can hear them talking about what they've been doing online and the communities that are out there and that shows the connectivity between the communities that are out there in indoor rowing. And if that doesn't show you that it's getting bigger and better every day, I don't know what will."