Image Credit: World Rowing
Entries: 27
World Rowing Cup 1 Winner: Lauren Henry (GBR)
The women’s singles will be incredible viewing in Lucerne—every single medallist and ten out of 12 A-finalists from the European Rowing Championships / World Rowing Cup Varese are racing.
The standout entry is European and World Rowing Cup 1 champion (not to mention world and Olympic gold medallist in the quad) Lauren Henry of Great Britain. She laid down a blazing 7:09.76 European World Best Time in the heat of the European Rowing Championships and has not stopped excelling. With an average win margin of 7.37 seconds, she is the odds-on favourite to take a third consecutive gold in the single.
The smallest margin of victory was over Ireland’s Fiona Murtagh, who took the silver at the European Rowing Championships. Murtagh is a two-time Olympian and Tokyo bronze medallist in the four who has switched to single sculling.
Also switching from a four to the single is Frida Sanggaard Nielsen of Denmark, who placed eighth in Paris in the larger boat and then earned bronze in the single at the European Rowing Championships.
Taking the silver medal at the 2025 Varese World Rowing Cup was Juliane Faralisch of Germany, who raced most of 2024 in the single with two A-final finishes and one silver medal on the World Rowing Cup circuit.
China’s Ruiqi Liu showed an incredible sprint (the fastest in the field by 2.5 splits) in Varese to earn the bronze medal. It’s exciting to see her improve from 14th at the 2023 World Rowing Championships to a podium finish at a World Rowing Cup.
In contrast, Katie Clark of Canada had never raced the single internationally until Varese, and had a stellar debut, finishing fourth.
Rounding out the Varese A-final were Mazarine Guilbert (BEL), U23 bronze medallist in 2024 and seventh-place finisher at the European Rowing Championships, and Anna Prakaten (UZB), Tokyo silver medallist and 11th-place finisher in Paris, who seems to be somewhat regaining her form.
Viktorija Senkute of Lithuania placed fifth at the European Rowing Championships, but as we observed in her 2024 run, which started with a sixth at the same event in 2024 and culminated in an Olympic bronze medal, she became more of a medal threat as the season progressed.
Making her season debut is Aurelia-Maxima Katharina Janzen (SUI). She placed ninth at the Paris Olympic Games, has three U23 world silver medals and one U23 World title, and two senior World Rowing Cup medals in this event. She is a bit of a wildcard without any races this year, but her distinctive style is always exciting to watch.
Alison Bergin, racing as Ireland 2, finished just behind Janzen with bronze at the 2022 U23 World Rowing Championships and silver in 2023. Since moving up to senior, she placed fourth at the 2023 World Rowing Championships and tenth at the Paris Olympic Games in the double. Most recently, she was in the quad for the European Rowing Championships, finishing tenth.
Another new name in the single field is Elena Orrjabinskaja (SRB), Tokyo Olympic silver medallist in the pair and 2025 European fourth-place finisher in the pair. She appears to be in good form, but how will she fare with two oars instead of one?
Beatriz Tavares of Brazil won the B-final in Varese; she is a Paris Olympian and 2023 Pan Am Games silver medallist in the single. Margaret Fellows (USA) finished just behind Tavares and is another strong contender. Last year, she finished only 0.6 seconds behind Janzen in World Rowing Cup 3.
The final mention goes to Olympian Laura Gourley of Australia, who missed the semifinals by 0.06 in Varese and then scratched the C-final. If she was struggling with illness or injury, she could crack into the top echelon with some recovery time.
Prediction
Lauren Henry (GBR) with yet another dominant performance, Fiona Murtagh (IRL) with silver, and Juliane Faralisch (GER) taking bronze.
