Image Credit: World Rowing
2023 Champion: Karolien Florijn (The Netherlands)
Entries: 20
There has been one standout athlete in this event so far this season, Lauren Henry of Great Britain. The Paris Olympic women’s quad champion moved into the single at the start of 2025 and has been unstoppable, winning every race so far by clear water. She’s targeted not only to win the World Rowing Championships (which would make her the first Brit to win an open-weight single title) but also has her eyes on breaking Rumyana Neykova’s 23-year-old World Best Time of 7:07.71. She’s come close, posting a 7:09.7 in her heat in Varese (making her the fastest ever British women’s single sculler), and if conditions are right in Shanghai, a record could well be on the cards. She’s such a dominant force in the event right now that it would be a significant event if she weren’t to take the title.
Leading the challenge against the Brit is Ireland’s Fiona Murtagh. She’s new to the single this season, having raced on the Irish sweep team from 2021 to 2024, a career which delivered Olympic bronze in the coxless four in Tokyo and an eighth place in the pair in Paris. The move to the single has been very profitable for the University of Galway athlete, though. She’s been the runner-up behind Henry at both the European Rowing Championships and the Lucerne World Rowing Cup and is the only sculler to get within a length of the Brit.
Germany hasn’t won a medal in this event since Katrin Rutschow took silver in 2003. They could well sneak a medal this year with their talented young sculler, Alexandra Foester. The 23-year-old won the U23 women’s single titles in 2021, 2022 and 2024. She’s also delivered a B-final win at the Olympic Games and World Rowing Cup medals in 2022, 2023 and 2024. However, 2025 has been something of a blip. She had a disappointing European Rowing Championships, only managing fifth in the B-final for 11th overall (her worst-ever result). She moved into the double with Julianne Faralisch in Lucerne, finishing sixth. If she recovers the form she showed in 2024, she is definitely in with a shout of a medal.
Denmark’s Frida Sanggaard Nielsen won a bronze at both the European Rowing Championships and the Lucerne World Rowing Cup this season. The Dane is another athlete who has made the move from sweep to sculling this season. She’s spent pretty much her entire senior career racing in the coxless four. During that time, she’s won a World Rowing Championship bronze (2019) and finished eighth at both the Tokyo and Paris Olympic Games.
The Netherlands have won this title for the last two World Rowing Championships, but the defending champion, Karolien Florijn, has taken a break in 2025, so in her place, the Netherlands has selected Claire de Kok. The 23-year-old was in the U23 quad that won bronze in 2023 and in 2024 finished eighth in the W4X at the Europeans. This season, she raced in the eight that won silver at the European Rowing Championships and then raced to a ninth place in the pair at the Varese World Rowing Cup.
Canada’s Katie Clark is having the best season of her career. The University of British Columbia athlete raced at both the Varese and Lucerne World Rowing Cups, just missing the podium on both occasions.
Another athlete who’s having a standout season so far is Belgium’s Mazarine Guilbert. The 23-year-old was a U23 bronze medallist in 2024. So far this season, she has made the A-final at both World Rowing Cups and won the B-final at the European Rowing Championships (Belgium’s best result in the women’s single at the Euros since 2008). She will be targeting an A-final placing in Shanghai, and if she can manage that, it will be the best result for a Belgian women’s single for 30 years.
Lithuania’s Viktorija Senkute is an Olympic bronze medallist from Paris. The 29-year-old made the final at the 2023 World Rowing Championships, and her Olympic medal in Paris is her only medal to date, so she’s somewhat ahead of the form guide. This season, she’s delivered strong performances, making the A-final at both the European Rowing Championships and Lucerne World Rowing Cup and finishing fifth on both occasions.
A name that can’t be ignored is Anna Prakaten of Uzbekistan. The former Russian athlete was one of the dominant players in the Tokyo Olympiad, winning the 2021 European title and taking silver at the Olympic Games. She switched nationalities after Tokyo and has struggled to recapture that medal-winning form for her new nation. She was 15th in 2023 and then 11th in Paris. This season, she made the A-final in Varese and then finished last in the B-final in Lucerne.
Another athlete who is having her strongest season to date is Brazilian Beatriz Tavares. Before this season, her best result was tenth at the third World Rowing Cup of 2024 and then 15th at the Paris Olympic Games. She’s delivered much stronger performances this season, with B-final wins at both the Varese and Lucerne World Rowing Cups.
Spain’s Esther Brit Zamorano last raced in the single scull at the 2022 U23 World Rowing Championships, where she won the B-final. Since then, as a senior athlete, she’s been racing sweep, winning World Rowing Cup and European Rowing Championship medals in the pair in 2022 and placing eighth in the pair in Paris. Shanghai will be her first race of the 2025 season, so she’s going to be a bit of an unknown quantity in the event.
Other scullers to look out for include Romy Cantwell of Australia, making her senior debut following a bronze medal at the U23 World Rowing Championships this year. Also look out for Paige Bandenhorst of South Africa, 14th in Paris and eighth at the Lucerne World Rowing Cup and finally Lauren O’Connor of the USA, moving into the single after racing in the quad at the 2023 World Rowing Championships and Paris Olympic Games.
Prediction
I really can’t see anyone getting close to Lauren Henry. She will win by clear water ahead of Murtagh of Ireland in the silver and Foester of Germany in bronze.
