Image Credit: World Rowing
The 2025 World Rowing Championships was a poor start to the LA quadrennial for Canada overall, with only one A Final placing. However, the women’s sculling team was a bright light, with inspiring performances and huge potential for the next three years. Shanghai also saw the return of a Canadian para mixed coxed four and an emphasis on doubling up into the big boats, which should help with strategic planning and crew selection in the future.
Women’s Sculling
The women’s quad of Alizee Brien, Kristen Siermachesky, Cassidy Deane, and Caroline (Shaye) de Paiva blasted out to the 500m marker in first place in the heat, and hung on for third place across the line. Their time qualified in sixth place for the A-final – making them the first Canadian women’s quad to reach the A-final at any event since 2014! In fact, this was only the fourth A-final appearance at the World Rowing Championships in this boat class in the past 28 years.
In the final, they finished sixth, and their true speed is likely closer to the leaders than it appeared – lanes were reseeded for wind, and Canada was the only crew impacted by doubling-up into the eight earlier in the day. After missing Paris qualification by one place at the Final Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Regatta, this quad result is a promising start to the new quadrennial. This was the first senior World Rowing Championships for Brien and de Paiva, and first A-final for Siermachesky – only Deane has made an A-final before, in the 2023 women’s eight.
Katie Clark stroked the quad in 2024 and moved into the single for 2025 with immediate success. Two fourth-place finishes in Varese and Lucerne were followed up with strong results in Shanghai. Clark posted the seventh fastest time in the heats, then had an extremely close race to finish fourth in the semifinal, 0.4 seconds off a qualifying position and the sixth best time overall. She wrapped up her first World Rowing Championships in the single with a confident win in the B-final, leading at every 500m marker. Clark has put herself in elite company with this result. Carling Zeeman placed sixth in the 2015, 2017, and 2019 World Rowing Championships and ninth in 2018, and Clark’s already being in seventh place in her debut season is incredibly promising. Besides Clark and Zeeman, no Canadian women’s single has placed in the top 12 at the World Rowing Championships since 1999 (Marnie McBean, another legend of Canadian rowing).
Also winning the B-final was lightweight single sculler Karissa Riley, establishing herself in the senior ranks after a bronze medal at the U23 World Rowing Championships in 2023 and winning the C-final at the senior World Rowing Championships last year. In the heat, she achieved the only direct qualification of any Canadian crew by placing second, finishing between two former World medallists and with the fourth-fastest time. Her semifinal was also a barnburner, with Riley finishing in a close fourth position with the seventh-fastest time. Riley was the 2024 openweight national silver medallist in the single, and her Shanghai results are even more impressive, considering she was not training at the National Training Centre this year and instead putting in the work at her hometown Calgary Rowing Club.
Para Rowing
It was fantastic to see a PR3 mixed coxed four on the world stage for the first time since the Tokyo Paralympics, where they placed eighth. The Canadian team of Abbygayle Durliat, Stuart Chase, Johan (Jay) Berner, Marie Danielle Main, and coxswain Teija Patry matched that result in Shanghai. Even though it was a last-place finish, the B-final was very competitive against the Spanish – Canada had a mishap on the start but had the quicker middle thousand, eventually losing by only 2 seconds. This is an excellent start for the project with a brand new crew, and hopefully, they can build on this momentum throughout the quadrennial.
Women’s Sweep
Unfortunately, the women’s eight ending up in the B-final was shocking – seventh place in Shanghai was the worst World Rowing Championships finish in over 50 years. There was only one other occasion during that time when the Canadian eight were in the B-final, which was at the 2004 Olympics.
There is no obvious cause for this result – possibly it was the impact of doubling up, which has been rare for the Canadian delegation in the past. In addition, the hot conditions may have been a disadvantage for athletes from colder countries. The international field continues to get deeper – the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy are on the rise, making the competition steeper for the traditional women’s eight powerhouses if they can’t adapt to the rising standard.
Half of the crew made their senior World Rowing Championships debut (Sally Jones, Parker Illingworth, Brenna Randall, and de Paiva), but all are internationally experienced and/or have strong university experience. Only two returned from the Paris silver medal eight, but both are hugely decorated with many World and Olympic medals – Caileigh Filmer and coxswain Kristen Kit. Alexis Cronk is also a former medallist in this event, bronze in 2022, and Siermachesky won a World Rowing Cup gold in 2024 before serving as a spare for the Paris Olympic Games. Deane raced to fifth in this event at the 2023 World Rowing Championships.
Eighth place for the women’s four is a good result, building on tenth at the Tokyo Olympic Games and tenth at the 2023 World Rowing Championships. Only seven crews will qualify for the Olympic Games via the World Rowing Championships in 2027, so eighth is a positive stepping stone.
Also, the Canadian team should be lauded for their versatility, which seems increasingly necessary to succeed on the world stage (the Dutch and Romanian teams are a case in point). Randall, Jones, Cronk, and Filmer raced the heat for the women’s four. Before the final, Filmer had to be substituted for medical reasons, and de Paiva joined the crew (her third boat class of the championships). For the eight final, Randall moved up to the stroke seat and Deane switched from starboard to port (her third rowing style of the championships) so that Brien (from the women’s quad) could substitute in on starboard.
Men’s Rowing
The Canadian men’s programme has been struggling for many years, and did not qualify any men for the Olympics in 2024 – the first time in 120 years. The last World Rowing Championships A-final in a big boat was in 2022 (eight), and in small boats, there hasn’t even been a B-final appearance since 2022 (double and single). High Performance Director Adam Parfitt (2022 – present) said the following after the men’s eight heartbreakingly missed Paris Qualification by 0.01 seconds – “We recognise that there is a gap specific to men’s rowing in Canada that needs to be addressed. In collaboration with our partners across the country, I feel confident that we can reinvigorate this pipeline. This is certainly a priority for us moving forward into the next Olympic quadrennial.”.
The 2025 results are disappointing, and hopefully, the men’s programme can evaluate root causes and build towards success this quadrennial with the support of Rowing Canada Aviron. Sending athletes to high-performance events like Holland Beker and the World Rowing Championships is essential to build international experience, and from that standpoint, this summer has been valuable for the men’s squad. There are extremely talented and hardworking rowers in Canada – identification, development, preparation, and support all need to come together to find success at the next level.
Ninth place in the men’s eight is the worst performance at any World Rowing event since the 2006 World Rowing Championships, where the Canadians also placed ninth. This is only the third time men have ranked this low in 30 years. Four athletes returned from the Final Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Regatta eight (Joel Cullen, Terek Been, Ryan Clegg, and coxswain Laura Court), along with Olympian Trevor Jones and experienced international Steven Rosts. They were joined by senior debutants Maijken Meinderstma and FISU medallists Axel Ewashko and Sam Stewart.
Cullen, Clegg, Ewashko, and Rosts doubled up into the men’s four, placing fourth in the heat and fifth in the C-final for 17th overall. This quartet won two gold medals at Holland Beker this summer, which showed early promise, but the competition at the World Rowing Championships is much stiffer. 17th is the worst fours result since 14th place at the 2007 World Rowing Championships.
Jones and Been were eliminated from the men’s double event after the heat, where they posted the slowest time overall, and ended the regatta in 19th. These two athletes have both broken 5:40 on the Concept2, putting them in the top 20 fittest rowers in history on sheer power. It is unclear what contributed to these elite and experienced athletes placing last among this field, but hopefully, the issues can be addressed as the quadrennial progresses.
Overall Performance
The table below summarises the Canadian performance at the last five global championships. Olympic/Paralympic Qualifying Positions have been included as a metric to evaluate minor placings, even though that only applies in the year before the Games. For example, the 2022 World Rowing Championships had five boats in “qualifying” position, which slipped to only two in the actual qualifying year. This comparison shows the steady decline in top-end achievement and overall depth over the past few years – Canadian supporters are hoping that Rowing Canada Aviron can turn the tide and regain our status as a prominent rowing nation.
| Boat Class | Tokyo Olympics | 2022 Worlds | 2023 Worlds | Paris Olympics | 2025 Worlds |
| W8+ | Gold | Bronze | 5 | Silver | 7 |
| W4- | 10 | – | 10 | – | 8 |
| W2- | Bronze | 11 | 18 | – | – |
| W4x | – | – | 10 | – | 6 |
| W2x | 6 | 11 | 14 | – | – |
| W1x | 8 | 16 | – | – | 7 |
| LW2x | 12 | 7 | 4 | 8 | – |
| M8+ | – | 5 | 8 | – | 9 |
| M4- | 8 | – | – | – | 17 |
| M2- | 4 | – | 21 | – | – |
| M4x | – | – | 16 | – | – |
| M2x | – | 11 | – | – | 19 |
| M1x | 9 | 10 | 23 | – | – |
| LM2x | 10 | – | – | – | – |
| Paralympic Crews | 8 – PR3 Mix4+ 12 – PR2 Mix2x | 12 – PR1 M1x | 8 – PR3 Mix4+ | ||
| Medals | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Olympic/ Paralympic Qualifying Positions | 6 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
