Holders: Leander Club
Entries: 23 (To be reduced to 16 by Qualifying races)
Leander Club have won this event for the last four years, but with no Leander-only entry in this year’s event, that run will come to an end, although they do have athletes involved in two composite crews.
The first of the Leander composite boats is Leander Club and Mercantile Rowing Club, Australia. Their line-up includes two of the Leander crew who won this event last year, Jack Keeting and Oliver Costley. They are joined by Mercantile’s U23 world silver medallist Dominic Frederico. The fourth member of the crew is Kiwi senior international James Hindle-Daniels, who was part of the New Zealand quad that finished 16th at the 2022 World Rowing Championships. So far this season, this crew has taken wins at both the Ghent Regatta and the Metropolitan Regatta.
The second Leander composite is racing as The Windsorian Rowing Club and Leander Club. This crew are the provisional Great Britain U23’s and the lineup is Jack Cadwallader, Nathaniel Gauden, Elliot Donovan-Davies, and Dan Bradbery. Cadwallader and Gauden won silver for Great Britain in the quad at the 2023 U19 World Rowing Championships, and Gauden went on to race with Donovan-Davies in the GB quad at the 2024 U23 World Rowing Championships. Donovan-Davies has just finished his Freshman year at Stanford and rowed in their Varsity eight that finished ninth at the IRA National Championship. Bradbery is a student at Cal Berkeley and rowed in their third Varsity crew that won silver at the PAC-12 Championships. He represented GB at the U23 European Rowing Championships in 2023, winning silver in the eight.
This year’s Prince of Wales Challenge Cup has attracted some truly outstanding overseas entries. The pick of these appears to be Entente Nautique Aviron d’Aix-les-Bains and Aviron Grenoblois, France. Their crew includes three senior lightweight internationals, including Paris Olympian Ferdinand Ludwig (seventh in the lightweight men’s double) and European lightweight men’s single medallist Baptiste Savaete. Also in the crew is Antoine Lefebvre, who won World Rowing Cup bronze in the lightweight men’s double in 2024 and bronze in the lightweight men’s double at the 2024 U23 World Rowing Championships. The fourth member of the crew is Romain Harat. He was fifth in the lightweight men’s single at the 2022 U23 World Rowing Championships.
Another very strong overseas entry are the German U23 crew racing as Bonner Ruder-Gesellschaft e.V. and Erster Kieler Ruder-Club von 1862 e.V. Their crew is stroked by European U23 champion Moritz Küpper, who also won a medal at the U23 World Rowing Championships. He’s joined by Oskar Kroglowski, who finished sixth in the lightweight men’s double at the 2024 U23 World Rowing Championships, and Ole Hanack, who raced in the U23 quad last season. The final member of the crew is the senior international, Arno Gaus. He was 16th in the lightweight men’s single at the 2023 World Rowing Championships and last season made the A-final of the lightweight men’s single at the second World Rowing Cup.
The Netherlands have two crews entered, both of which are straight through to the main draw. The first of these is Amsterdamsche Studenten Roeivereeniging Nereus and Roeivereeniging StudentenVrije Universiteit Okeanos, Netherlands. This crew are the reigning Dutch champions and their boat includes two of the U23 quad that finished fifth in 2022; Les Wiersma and Willem Stoop. Sitting at the bow is Lars Kreiter, who raced for the senior Netherlands team at the opening World Rowing Cup of the 2022 season and also raced in The Diamond Challenge Sculls in 2023 and 2024. The fourth member of the crew is Kevin-Lee Bieshaar, who won gold in the single at the Ghent International Regatta
The second Dutch crew are Koninklijke Studenten Roeivereeniging Njord and Algemene Amsterdamsche Studenten Roeivereniging Skøll, Netherlands. This boat placed second in the lightweight men’s quad at the Dutch National Championships, racing with Maxim Meijerink, Martinus Van den Bouwhuijsen, Tygo Rompa, and Pieter Jongepier.
Gone are the days when the Stewards automatically made any “B” crew race qualifiers, and Reading University benefits from that (un)written rule change, with both their “A” and “B” crews qualified. Reading University “A” are one of the outstanding domestic quads racing this season. Their crew of Matt Long, Erik Vaktskjold, Ryne Robson and Ed Fuller were winners at both BUCS and Marlow Regatta. Fuller, at stroke, won gold at the Paris Paralympic Games in the PR3 mixed coxed four and both Long and Vaktskjold have raced at the U23 World Rowing Championships, Long placing tenth in the quad in 2024 and Vaktskjold 17th in the quad for Norway in 2023.
Reading University “B” finished sixth in championships quads at both the BUCS Regatta and at Marlow Regatta. This crew, Ben Snoxall, Jack Bates, Harrison Green and Robert Cohen, also made the A-final at the Metropolitan Regatta.
Marlow Rowing Club look like an excellent domestic entity. Initially, they were listed as having to qualify when the roster was published on Sunday but a hasty adjustment from the Stewards added them to the group of quads heading straight for the Draw. They were an excellent second at Marlow Regatta and also second at the Metropolitan Regatta.
Edinburgh University also had a strong result at Marlow, finishing fourth in championship quads. They also placed fourth at BUCS and made the A-final at the Metropolitan Regatta.
Prediction
This is going to be another great contest. I would expect the Stewards to put Leander/Mercantile and the French composite on opposite sides of the draw, and I’ll pick those two to meet in the final, with Leander/Mercantile taking the win.
