Image Credit: World Rowing
2023 Champions: Romania
Entries: 10
If GB and Germany have been dominating the men’s eight for the last decade or so, then in the women’s event, that battle has been between Romania and the USA. Only once in the previous 13 World Rowing Championships has someone other than Romania or the USA won the world title (New Zealand in 2019). The USA won the world title for eight years in a row between 2006 and 2015 and retook the title in 2018. But for the past few years, the Romanians have dominated the event, winning the 2022 and 2023 world titles.
Romania come into Shanghai on the back of a gold medal performance at the Lucerne World Rowing Cup. Their crew includes six of the line-up that won gold in Paris, Roxana Anghel, Ancuta Bodnar, Maria Lehaci, Adriana Adam, Amalia Beres and coxswain Victoria Petreannu. Also in the boat is the 2023 women’s eight world champion, Iuliana Buhus, and Christina Druga who was sixth in the women’s quad in 2023. The final member of the crew is two-time U23 women’s double world champion Iulia-Liliana Balauca. Bodnar, Lehaci, Adam and Beres raced in the women’s coxless four at the European Rowing Championships, winning a silver medal and the rest of the crew were in the eight that finished fourth (a somewhat surprise result as it was only the third time in 19 years that the Romanians had failed to win gold and only the second time they failed to win a medal of any kind). As is familiar with the Romanian women’s team (and increasingly for other nations), the women’s eight are all doubling up in other events.
The USA comes to Shanghai with one of its most inexperienced crews in a long time. Only two boat members, bow Charlotte Buck and coxswain Nina Castagna, have raced at a senior level before 2025; they were both in the eight that finished fifth at the Olympic Games. Joining them are three members of the gold medal U23 eight from 2023, Hannah Heideveld, Megan Lee and Mia Levy. Also in the boat is 2022 U23 world champion Anna Jensen, along with 2019 U23 bronze medallist Kaitlyn Kynast and 2019 U23 world champion Alexandria Vallancey-Martinson. The final member of the crew is Texas Longhorn Etta Carpender, who made her international debut this season. The USA made a good start to the 2025 season, with Buck, Carpender, Vallancey-Martinson and Castagna in the eight that won silver at the opening World Rowing Cup and in Lucerne, they took another silver in this boat class and gold in the coxless four. However, Shanghai will be the first time this full line-up has raced.
The standout performers so far this season have been the British. They are also a relatively inexperienced line-up, with only two Olympic bronze medal crew members returning for 2025, Lauren Irwin and Heidi Long. Four other crew members, Eleanor Brinkhoff, Amelia Standing, Martha Birtles and Eve Stewart, all made their senior debuts last year, finishing fifth in the women’s coxless four at the final World Rowing Cup. Also in the boat is U23 world champion Juliette Perry and U23 silver medallist from 2019, Megan Slabbert. Coxing the boat is Oxford Blue Boat cox, Jack Tottem, who also coxed the GB U23 women’s eight in 2023. As mentioned above, GB are the standout crew this season, winning gold at the European Rowing Championships and the Varese World Rowing Cup. They also doubled up at the European Rowing Championships, winning bronze in the women’s coxless four and women’s pair.
Runners-up to the British at the European Rowing Championships were the Netherlands. Their crew includes Olympic champions Hermine Drenth and Tinka Offereins from the women’s coxless four and Ymkje Clevering from the women’s pair. Also in the boat are 2022 women’s quad silver medallists Nika Vos and Ilse Kolkman, along with 2022 U23 world champion Vera Sneijders and 2023 U23 silver medallist Linn Van Aanholt. These two raced as the women’s pair at the 2024 European Rowing Championships, winning the B-final. Also in the boat is Lisanne Van Der Lelij (eighth in the women’s quad at the 2024 European Rowing Championships) and the highly experienced cox, Dieuwke Fetter. This season, as well as finishing as runners-up to the British in the eight at the European Rowing Championships, they doubled up and took gold in the four. At the Varese World Rowing Cup, they didn’t race as an eight, but members of the crew took bronze in the women’s coxless four and silver in the women’s pair.
Canada are Olympic silver medallists from Paris and come to Shanghai with just two of that crew, stroke Caileigh Filmer and cox Kristen Kit. Also in the boat are Alexis Cronk and Cassidy Deane, who were in the eight at the 2023 World Rowing Championships, along with fellow 2023 World Rowing Championship team member Kristen Siermachesky. The Canadians haven’t raced as an eight so far this season, but Cronk, Brenna Randall, Deane and Caroline de Paiva raced in the women’s coxless four at the two World Rowing Cups, placing eighth on both occasions.
Germany’s women’s sweep squad has always been seen as the lowest priority of the German team. The last time the German women won a World Rowing Championship sweep medal was a bronze in 2016 (when that boat wasn’t an Olympic-class event), whilst in the women’s eight, you have to go back to 2006 for the last time the Germans made the podium. This season, they are making a concerted effort to get back amongst the medals. The crew is led by Olympic women’s quad bronze medallist Tabea Schendekehl and the bow three of the boat – Michelle Lebahn, Lene Muehrs and Olivia Clotten – were in the eight that finished fifth at the 2023 World Rowing Championships. Lebahn, Clotten and Luise Bachmann also raced at the U23 World Rowing Championships in 2023, winning bronze in the eight. This season the Germans are the only nation to have raced at the European Rowing Championships and the two World Rowing Cups, finishing fifth at the Euros and fourth in Varese and Lucerne.
Australia is another nation that comes into the World Rowing Championships with a crew containing two Paris Olympians. Paige Barr was fourth in the women’s eight, and Laura Gourley was in the eighth-placed women’s quad. Also in the boat are three members of the gold medal U23 coxed four from 2023, Zara Collisson, Katherine Easton and Sophie Houston. Barr and Georgie Gleeson were in the eight that won bronze at the 2023 World Rowing Championships. This season, Australia raced at the Varese World Rowing Cup, with Barr, Bramwell, Jaime Ford and Gleeson placing third in the eight, Easton tenth in the women’s coxless four and Gourley 18th in the women’s single.
In terms of Olympic experience, it is Italy who leads the way. All but one of their crew racing in Shanghai raced at the Paris Olympic Games. Giorgia Pelacchi, Silvia Terrazzi, Elisa Mondelli, Aisha Rocek, Veronica Bumbaca and Emanuele Capponi all raced in the women’s eight that finished sixth. Stefania Gobbi and Clara Guerra finished 11th in the women’s double. The only crew member not to have raced in Paris is Kiri English-Hawke, but she did race in Tokyo, finishing 12th in the women’s pair with Bumbaca. This season, the Italians won a bronze medal at the European Rowing Championships and placed fifth at their home World Rowing Cup.
A Polish women’s eight at a World Rowing Championships is a reasonably rare sighting. 2025 will be the first entry for the Poles in this event since 2009, and the only previous entry before was 50 years ago. With an average age of 24, they have the second youngest crew in the event and are inexperienced on the senior stage. Before the start of this season, only Rozalia Linowska and Anna Potrzuska had raced on the senior circuit (Linowska placing fourth in the women’s quad at the third World Rowing Cup of 2024 and Potrzuska fifth in the women’s coxless four at the 2024 European Rowing Championships). Potrzuska was the U23 world champion in the coxless four in 2023, and she’s joined by her crewmate from that boat, Weronika Ludwiczak. Ludwiczak was also in the silver medal-winning European U23 four in 2024, along with Julia Hakobyan. The crew also contains the European U23 silver medal double from last year. This season, the Poles have raced at the European Rowing Championships, finishing sixth, and the Lucerne World Rowing Cup, placing fifth.
The final crew in the event are the host nation, China. They have the youngest crew in the event with an average age of just 21, and only one of the crew, 26-year-old Yuxiu Zhou, has raced internationally before; she was in the women’s eight that finished sixth at the 2022 World Rowing Championships. The rest of the crew, Zhenxue Nie, Huichen Xiao, Jingran Xiong, Sangjizhuoma Sangjizhuoma, Hong Wang, Qian Wei, Si Liu and Yafei Qiao all made their debuts at the start of the season. They’ve raced at both World Rowing Cups this year, trailing in last of the six entries on both occasions.
It’s worth noting that Australia, Canada, GB, Italy, The Netherlands and Romania are all doubling up in the women’s coxless four.
Prediction
GB is the form crew this year and has already beaten the Romanians this season, but Romania has strengthened its boat and will be a very tough opponent. I’m going to stick my neck out and say the British win their first-ever women’s eight world title, with Romania holding off the Netherlands for the silver medal.
