Holder: O. Zeidler Frankfurter Rudergesellchaft Germania 1869 E.V Germany
Entries: 42 (To be reduced to 16 by Qualifying races)
Just qualifying for this year’s Diamonds is going to be brutal. No fewer than 20 full international athletes are entered, but with only 16 places available, some experienced athletes are going to miss out.
The “big” name on the entry list is the defending champion, Ollie Zeidler (Frankfurter Rudergesellschaft Germania 1869 E.V Germany). He is aiming for his fifth Diamonds title, a feat which would make him the third most successful sculler in the competition’s history (behind Mahe Drysdale and Stuart Mackenzie with six each). Winning his fifth pineapple cup may not be that straightforward, though. Zeidler hasn’t raced internationally since winning the Olympic Games, so his race pace and fitness at this part of the season are unknown. He also faces probably the strongest field in The Diamond Challenge Sculls for many years.
Leading the charge against the defending champion is a veritable armada of Dutch scullers, (all racing as Hollandia Roeiclub) with Simon Van Dorp and Melvin Twellaar leading a four-boat assault on the Henley Royal Regatta reach. Van Dorp won bronze behind Zeidler at the Paris Olympic Games and in 2023 took silver behind the German at the World Rowing Championships. This year, he won silver as part of the Dutch quad at the European Rowing Championships, and then at the Varese World Rowing Cup, he won the single. Twellaar, meanwhile, had a World Rowing Cup to forget in Varese. Hotly tipped to go toe-to-toe with Van Dorp, he fell off the pace badly in the A-final and could only manage sixth. This was quite a surprise for a sculler with a World Rowing Championship silver in the single from 2022 and Olympic silvers in the double from Tokyo and Paris. Hopefully, he has recovered from whatever issue he faced in Varese and will be a major contender for the honours come Sunday afternoon.
The third of the Dutch contingent is 2019’s beaten finalist, Guillaume Krommenhoek. He raced in the eight at the European Rowing Championships, but for Henley Royal Regatta, he’s been replaced in the eight for The Grand Challenge Cup by Finn Florijn. He was in the eight that won silver at the 2022 and 2023 World Rowing Championships and raced the pair in Tokyo. He’s had slightly less international success as a sculler but has won World Rowing Cup medals in the quad. He is no stranger to the Henley stretch; alongside his exploits in this competition, he has a red box from his win in The Silver Goblets and Nickalls’ Challenge Cup last year.
The last of the Dutch contingent is Pieter Van Veen. He raced in the single at the 2024 European Rowing Championships, finishing 15th. This season, he raced in the four at both the European Rowing Championships and Varese World Rowing Cup, placing fourth in Plovdiv and second at the World Rowing Cup.
Stefanos Ntouskos (Nautical Club of Ioannina, Greece) is a name that leaps out from the entry list. The Tokyo Olympic champion has never raced in The Diamond Challenge Sculls; his one Henley Royal Regatta appearance to date was in the Double Sculls back in 2016 when, as a 19-year-old, he lost on the Thursday. His Olympic title was Greece’s first-ever Olympic rowing gold medal. Since winning the title, he’s been eclipsed slightly by the emergence of the likes of Zeidler and the Dutch, but he has always been there or thereabouts and won European silver in 2022, 2023 and 2025. He also made the A-final at the Paris Olympic Games. Greece has never won an event at Henley Royal Regatta, and Ntouskos has a real chance to challenge for the honours on Sunday.
Another sculler with significant Olympic experience is Ryuta Arakawa (NTT East Rowing Club, Japan). Japan’s most successful Olympic rower, he was 11th at his home Olympic Games and ninth in Paris. He also has strong B-final finishes at the 2022 and 2023 World Rowing Championships. Like Ntouskos, he has never raced in The Diamond Challenge Sculls but has made a previous appearance at the regatta in The Silver Goblets and Nickalls’ Challenge Cup, racing for Hitotsubashi University in 2015, losing in an all-Japanese heat in the second round. This season, he raced at the Varese World Rowing Cup but withdrew during the regatta on medical grounds.
Logan Ulrich (Waiariki Rowing Club, New Zealand) will be looking to emulate the great Mahe Drysdale and take another Diamonds win for the Kiwis. He is New Zealand’s single sculler for this season, and he won the B-final in Varese, his first international sculling competition. More known as a sweep oarsman, he won U23 silver in the coxless four in 2022 before moving up to the senior squad in 2023 and returning with a World Rowing Championship bronze medal in the coxless four. He stayed in that boat for 2024, culminating in an Olympic silver medal. He also spent the spring racing for the University of Washington, helping them win the IRA National Championship. It will be interesting to see how the 24-year-old develops as a single sculler this season.
New Zealand has another senior international entrant, Finlay Hamill (Waikato Rowing Club, New Zealand). He is a former lightweight, winning silver in the lightweight single at the U23 World Rowing Championships in 2022, and in 2024, he raced on the open-weight U23 team, taking tenth in the quad. This is his first full season on the senior team, and he and partner Ben Mason made an immediate impact, winning bronze in the double in Varese. He and Mason are also entered in The Double Sculls Challenge Cup, so it remains to be seen if he retains his Diamonds entry, as that will be a lot of racing up the Henley stretch.
Hopes for a home Diamonds victory will rest on three national squad scullers. Tom Barras (Burway Rowing Club). He’s been a member of the senior GB team since 2017, and after finishing 14th in the single at the 2019 World Rowing Championships, he moved into the quad, winning a historic silver medal at the Tokyo Olympic Games and another silver at the 2022 World Rowing Championships. He was also in the quad that narrowly missed the podium in Paris, and so far, this season has a bronze medal from Varese when he stepped into the GB quad as a medical substitute.
Aidan Thompson (Twickenham Rowing Club) is the second senior GB international racing. He is GB’s single sculler for this season, and after a somewhat tentative start at the European Rowing Championships (finishing 15th), he made huge gains at the opening World Rowing Cup, where he finished second in the B-final. A product of the World Class Start programme, he made his senior debut in 2023, racing in the double with John Collins, reaching the final of the Double Sculls at Henley Royal Regatta that year.
The third GB squad member racing is James Cartwright (Leander Club). He made his senior international debut this season, placing 14th in the double at the Varese World Rowing Cup. He was a member of the GB U23 squad in 2019, 2021, and 2022, with the best result being fourth in the double in 2022. A graduate of Northeastern University in the USA, he raced for Leander in 2021, winning The Prince of Wales Challenge Cup.
The USA last won The Diamond Challenge Sculls in 2005, and of the three US entries in this year’s event, the leading challenger will be Eliot Putnam (New York Athletic Club, USA). He represented America in the single at the 2023 World Rowing Championships, placing 14th. The second New York Athletic Club sculler is Sam Melvin. He was America’s top lightweight sculler, winning the U23 World Rowing Championships in 2019 and then winning the B-final at the senior World Rowing Championships in 2023 before finishing last season with a career-best fourth place in the lightweight single at the World Rowing Championships.
Belgium last won The Diamond Challenge Sculls in 2016, when Hannes Obreno defeated Mahe Drysdale. This year’s top Belgian sculler, Tim Brys, is racing in the Double Sculls, so their representative in this year’s Trophy is Tristan Vandenbussche (Union Nautique de Bruxelles, Belgium). He was U23 world champion in 2022 and raced in the double throughout the 2023 and 2024 seasons, making the A-final at the 2023 European Rowing Championships and then winning the B-final the following year. This season, he again won the B-final in the double and will be racing the single in Lucerne.
Spain has entered two scullers, both racing as Team Espana. The first is Koxme Burutaran Olaizola. This is the 24-year-old’s first full season on the senior Spanish team, and he made his debut at the European Rowing Championships in Plovdiv, placing second in the D-final. Spain’s second sculler is Dennis Carracedo Ferraro. He is one of many former lightweight scullers transitioning to the open-weight category following the withdrawal of lightweight events from the Olympic Games. He had an excellent record as a lightweight, placing fifth in the lightweight double at the 2023 World Rowing Championships and eighth at the Paris Olympic Games. He made his open-weight debut at the European Rowing Championships with his long-term lightweight doubles partner, Caetano Horta Pomba, finishing 17th.
A couple of non-British international athletes compete for British clubs, the first of which is Filip-Mater Pfeifer (Oxford Brookes University). The Slovenian finished second at BUCS Regatta earlier this season, then, racing for his national team at the European Rowing Championships, placed tenth. He is racing in Lucerne next weekend, so will be hoping/assuming that the Stewards don’t want him to qualify.
The second overseas international racing in British club colours is Daniel Dubitsky (Imperial College). The Israeli international also raced at BUCS, finishing sixth. He raced for Imperial at Marlow Regatta, placing second in the B-final. As an international, he has a fourth place in the lightweight pair from the 2023 World Rowing Championships, and also raced in the lightweight double that year but did not progress beyond the repechage stage. I would expect the Stewards to ask Dubitsky to qualify.
Ireland has not won The Diamond Challenge Sculls since the legendary Sean Drea won his third straight title back in 1975. Whilst I do not think the Irish will add to that tally this year, their sole entry in this year’s event, Brian Colsh (University of Galway, Ireland), stands a good chance of getting quite far in the regatta. He made his senior international debut for Ireland in 2022 at the age of 20, finishing 15th in the single at the World Rowing Championships. In 2023, he raced on the U23 and senior teams, winning the U23 World Rowing Championships in the double and placing 13th in the quad at the senior World Rowing Championships. Last season, he raced at the first and second World Rowing Cups before winning bronze at the U23 World Rowing Championships in the double. He has competed on the domestic circuit, picking up silver at the Metropolitan Regatta.
Josh Knight (Minerva Bath Rowing Club) is the leading non-international squad sculler in the competition. He’s an outstanding talent and part of the GB Performance Development Academy. A former hockey player, he only started rowing in 2022. He won the 2024 British Indoor Rowing Championships, clocking an impressive 5:47.6, and also won the championship single at Marlow Regatta. He probably stands the best chance of any non-international athletes to qualify, and his win in Marlow might just be enough to persuade the Stewards to give him a coveted pre-qualification.
Another strong domestic contender is Ben Parsonage (Clydesdale Amateur Rowing Club). He was second to Knight in Marlow and hopes to qualify for his second Diamond Challenge Sculls. Last year, he lost on Thursday to Anders Poulsen of Denmark.
The final sculler to mention is Oxford University’s Tassilo Von Mueller. He was a member of the Dark Blue’s Blue Boat in 2024 and 2025 and raced for the German U23 team in 2021.
Prediction
We are in for an epic contest. Whilst Zeidler has the pedigree as the defending world, Olympic and Diamond Challenge Sculls champion, his lack of racing this season does make him vulnerable. Henley Royal Regatta has a habit of biting athletes who are not fully prepped, especially in this Trophy (just ask Mahe Drysdale). Add to that the fact that the German faces two Dutch scullers who are close to the top of their game, then I think Zeidler could be heading for his first defeat on the Henley stretch. My money will be on Simon Van Dorp to deliver a first Diamond Challenge Sculls win for the Netherlands since Merlin Vervoon in 1996, and depending on the draw, I think he will either face his team mate and great friend Melvin Twellaar, or Tokyo Olympic champion Ntouskos, in the final.
