Holders: Shawnigan Lake School, Canada
Entries: 10 (To be reduced to 8 by Qualifying races)
With no GB senior squad crew entered this year, Hollandia Roeiclub, Netherlands is the favourite to take the title. Their crew is Lisa Bruijnincx, Margot Leeuwenburgh, Willemijn Mulder and Tessa Dullemans. This quartet won the Varese World Rowing Cup and were third at the European Rowing Championships (with Lisanne Van Der Lelij racing instead of Dullemans). Dullemans won gold in the double in Plovdiv and was part of the quad that won two world and one Olympic silver medal. She joins Lisa Bruijnincx and Willemijn Mulder, both U23 world champions in the quad in 2022, and Margot Leeuwenburgh, eighth in the quad at last season’s European Rowing Championships.
The Dutch won’t have it easy though. Racing as Ruder-Club Potsdam e.V and Ruderclub Germania Düsseldorf von 1904, Germany are Maren Völz, Pia Greiten, Leonie Menzel and Tabea Schendekehl. This quartet will race together for the first time since winning bronze at the Paris Olympic Games next week. Only Pia Greiten has raced on the German team since Paris; she rowed in the German quad that won silver at both the European Rowing Championships and the Varese World Rowing Cup. It remains to be seen how much time this crew has had together, but with a pedigree like theirs, they will be no pushovers.
Racing as Redwood Scullers USA are four of Stanford University’s NCAA-winning Varsity crew, none of whom are American. The lineup is Iris Klok, Luise Bachmann, Esther Briz Zamorano and Celia Dupre. Klok was U23 world champion for the Netherlands in 2019 and made her senior international debut that year at the second World Rowing Cup. Bachmann, from Germany, won medals at the U23 World Rowing Championships in 2022, 2023 and 2024. Spaniard Briz Zamorano raced in the pair at the Paris Olympic Games, winning the B-final and bronze at the European Rowing Championships in 2023. Switzerland’s Celia Dupre also raced at the Paris Olympic Games, making the A-final in the quad. She’s also raced at the World Rowing Cup this year, placing seventh in the pair (a boat that earned Switzerland their first-ever women’s World Rowing Cup sweep points).
Two domestic crews have been pre-qualified. Nottingham Rowing Club and Hartpury University are the provisional GB U23 crew, with Heather Taylor, Jessica Weir, Eleanor Dash, and Poppy Baker. Both Taylor and Weir are studying in the USA, Taylor at Northeastern and Weir at Washington. Weir was U19 world champion in 2023, and Taylor raced for the GB U23 team at the European Rowing Championships in 2022. Baker was a member of the GB U23 quad that finished eighth in 2024. Dash represented England at the 2024 Home International Regatta. Dash, Taylor and Baker raced with Chloe Sheppard at Henley Women’s Regatta last weekend, reaching the final of the Borne Cup for championship quads.
The winners of The Borne Cup at Henley Women’s Regatta were Reading University. The crew is Ellie Cooke, Finnola Stratton, Megan Knight and Zara Povey. Alongside winning Henley Women’s Regatta, they also secured championship quads at BUCS Regatta (winning by almost ten seconds) and the Metropolitan Regatta. Three of the crew (Stratton, Cooke and Knight) raced in the women’s quad at the U23 World Rowing Championships last season, returning with the bronze medal. Povey was the fastest U23 at the November GB Trials. This crew are by far and away the best domestic quad in Britain and could well give some of the national squad boats a real run for their money.
Five crews have been asked to qualify for the remaining three places in the main draw. Bath University were bronze medallists at BUCS with their crew of Beatrice Hughes, Freya Ridge, Rebekah Court and Ella Fullman. Court and Fullman were finalists in the championship double at Henley Women’s Regatta.
Reading University has a second crew entered with Alexandra Grocock, Shannon Whelehan, Anna Turner and Izzy Lancaster. Whelehan and Lancaster won championship doubles at Henley Women’s Regatta last weekend.
Leander Club finished as runners-up at the Metropolitan Regatta, and their crew of Rosemary Varney, Frances Hunt-Davis, Rosa Thomson and Daniela Price-Hughes lost in the semi-final of the Borne Cup on Sunday.
Three of The Tideway Scullers School raced as a coxless four at Henley Women’s Regatta, with Ashley Vicars, Anna Beinhocker and Georgia Allen losing in the quarter-finals. For Henley Royal Regatta, they switch to the quad and are joined by Caroline Rijske, a winner of the championship lightweight double at Henley Women’s Regatta in 2023 and stroke of the winning Blondie crew this year.
The final crew in the event are the juniors from Stowe Sculling Club. With an average age of just 17, they will be a little out of their depth, but a time trial down the Henley course will be a great experience.
Prediction
As regards qualifying, I think Stowe and Reading University ‘B’ will be the unlucky ones.
As to who will take the title on Sunday, my money is on the crew from the Netherlands.
