When gates opened at the Sydney International Regatta Centre on Saturday morning, it had been 224 days since we’d seen schools racing at the venue. For some, it might’ve felt like yesterday, for many, it seems an eternity ago. For pundits, though, the question was whether the 2025/2026 season would be able to produce as much excitement, drama, and emotion as we saw last year. I can safely say we’re in for a cracker this year.
Twists and turns ahead in the schoolgirl eight
Whilst the results past the post on Saturday were as predicted, we’re clearly in for far more drama in the premier schoolgirl boat class throughout the season. Pymble Ladies College secured a convincing all-the-way win in a time slightly slower than at the first event last year, but the margin was even larger – over eight seconds back to Kinross. Interestingly, Kinross fielded a weaker crew than we would expect, with three girls absent due to injury, which is perhaps understandable given that their 2025 season ran all the way through to Henley Royal Regatta in July. With Kinross still 20 seconds clear of their nearest challengers, Queenwood, watching them progress as they add three of that 2025 crew back into the mix will be no doubt captivating.
The battle for bronze was tight too, with Queenwood holding off a fast finishing Loreto Normanhurst, who overhauled Loreto Kirribilli in the closing strokes. Rumour has it Normo were doing a capped-rate piece, so expect some more shuffling around once those crews find their feet.
Loreto Normanhurst is here to stay
In my ‘Five Things We Learnt’ article at last year’s opening regatta, the NSW All Schools Championships, I remarked, ‘Loreto Normanhurst are back’. Well, 12 months on, it’s clear they’re here to stay.
Last year, my words were a result of an impressive third in the first eight; this year, it’s the juniors that shone. The year ten first eight trumped a fancied Kinross crew in the second outing, before the year eight and nine quads collected seven top two finishes (including four wins) from eight starts. These efforts resulted in a point score win, delighting the crowds at their home regatta, which celebrated 35 years of Normo rowing.
In terms of their hosting of the regatta, they’ve raised the bar for school-hosted events. The livestream coverage was exceptional, the boat park was adorned in blue and gold, and all volunteer positions were filled and executed exceptionally.
Yes, there were some racing delays; however, the causes of those were due to incidents outside of the host’s control. The bar has been definitively raised ahead of the Kirribilli and Sydney Girls High regattas next month.
Credit must go to the leadership team of Cate Crampton and Aidan Smith, who have done a great job in moving Normo in the right direction. The caveat, however, is that Normo has an inherent early-season advantage due to training at SIRC. All signs are positive, though, and we’ll be watching with interest to see how they progress throughout the season.
Kirribilli has depth – can they convert?
Much to the entertainment of commentators Jackson Gursoy and Hannah Cowap, the final few races in the year ten quads were an almost exclusively Loreto Kirribilli affair. Upon examining the names, it appears that this smorgasbord of entries actually represents a strong year nine cohort, with many doubling up in the 2km event. While the results were nothing too spectacular, Kirribilli seems to have a decent-sized athlete pool, even without their year eight athletes entering at this first regatta. The question is, can they convert this depth into some medals at the sharp end of the season?
Year ten eights are more competitive than ever
The year ten eight category can be a bit up and down in NSW. With the option of quads, many programs look to defer the transition to sweep until after their athletes have had a year of 2000m racing under their belts. This weekend, however, we saw two brilliant races between the leading contenders in this event. In race one, it was Kinross who took the win over Loreto Normanhurst, with St Catherine’s and Pymble not far out of proceedings at any point in the race. The top two in that event doubled up in the second eight race, delivering my highlight race of the regatta. They showed composure beyond their years in holding off threats from the Pymble third eight and Kirribilli second eight, prompting a photo finish where Normo secured the win in what was an emotional victory for the girls and their coaches alike.
Without taking anything away from Pymble’s dominance of this event in 2025, hopefully, this marks a turning point that sees this event one of the ones to watch as we edge closer to the 2026 Head of the River.
MLC starts to shine
MLC School had a hopeful season last year, with a fourth at SGHOTR and B-final at Nationals. With two rowers and the cox back this year, they’ve started the season with a bang, posting a convincing win over Tara and Redlands. MLC has been slowly building for a couple of years, since the addition of Briton Rafe Stanford Meisl to the leadership team. The traditional challengers in the schoolgirl quads often hail from outside of Sydney, so it remains to be seen if MLC is setting the standard, or if NSW quads have some work to do to compete with those from the ACT.
