Image Credit: World Rowing
It feels strange to be in June yet staring down the barrel of no international racing on the senior stage until late September. Such is the quirky nature of the 2025 World Rowing Cup calendar that both World Rowing Cups + the European Rowing Championship are done and dusted with the summer still stretching in its – admittedly intense – infancy. Crews not opting to compete at Henley Royal Regatta now have a solid training block of ten weeks to prepare for Shanghai’s festivities, where the early frontrunners for the ongoing Olympiad will be crowned.
Henry’s Heroics
Lauren Henry is the standout performer on the World Rowing stage in 2025. Her third win in as many races underlines her credentials as the leading female single sculler on the planet. Her winning margin in Lucerne was considerably smaller than at both the European Rowing Championships and World Rowing Cup Varese – three seconds compared to nearly nine in Varese – but she’ll be delighted to collect all three honours en route to Shanghai. The chasing pack behind her won’t make it easy, though; Fiona Murtagh of Ireland led Henry beyond the 500m mark whilst Denmark’s Frida Sanggaard Nielsen was third. She may meet the Brit in the final of The Princess Royal Challenge Cup next weekend.
Relentless Romania
Is there any stopping this juggernaut of performance? Despite losing Antonio Colamonici to his native Italy, this programme continues to provide timely reminders of its enduring quality. Romania took the women’s eight title here, their first such win since gold in Paris last summer. They also collected gold in both the men’s and women’s pairs by relatively comfortable margins, whilst their men’s four pushed the Australians very hard in taking silver, finishing 0.7 seconds back.
Germination
We are witnessing the rebirth of the Deutschland-Achter. Winning their first World Rowing Cup gold in the eight since 2022 builds on the silver they won in Italy two weeks ago and reaffirms them as heavyweight contenders for World Rowing Championship gold. With Great Britain to come back in here, plus the Netherlands and possibly a strengthened Australian eight, you have to imagine this field will get faster. Germany will need to evolve in tandem. It’s also worth mentioning the German women’s quad, who took their respective title in a new-look crew from last year’s Olympic bronze medal outfit.
Serbian Sprint
The men’s double scull A-final was arguably the race of the regatta, with Serbia outsprinting the New Zealand pairing of Finlay Hamill and Benjamin Mason to take gold by 0.05 seconds. A win here is a vast improvement on fifth at the European Rowing Championships a month ago, showing that the Serbians are a brand on the upward trend. The Irish quad, which is slated to compete in The Queen Mother Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta, split into two doubles, finishing third (Fintan McCarthy and Konan Pazzaia) and fifth (Daire Lynch and Paul O’Donovan).
Star-Spangled Quality
In the women’s coxless four – where the major nations from the Paris Olympiad are currently undergoing something of a restoration program – the USA continues to lay out their case for the favourite tag approaching the 2025 World Rowing Championships. After a lean few years, by their exceptionally high standards, this women’s programme are starting to motor. They doubled up in Switzerland, winning the coxless four to take both World Rowing Cup titles, and finished second in the eight. I will repeat it for those who did not hear me the first time; the USRowing women’s team are back.
