Metropolitan Regatta 2025 – Women’s Championship Pair Preview

For many crews, this weekend provides a second run down the Dorney track. With packed races across two days, clubs and universities will be looking to see how they are shaping up against the opposition in the final lead up to Henley Women’s and Henley Royal Regatta, and test out some different combinations. Many of the bigger names have opted just to race on the Saturday in this category, leaving the field very open on Sunday.

Leander Club (Z. McKellar)

It would be foolish to expect anything less than a competitive crew out of Leander, and indeed this is the case here. Zoe McKellar has had plenty of success at the University of Sydney over the previous few years, racing in the World University Games for Australia in 2024, and recently moved to Leander Club. Two Leander eights placed first and third at Ghent Regatta recently, beating several national team crews, so if their boatspeed translates into the pair, they will be the ones to beat here.

Upper Thames Rowing Club (F. Gammond)

Upper Thames‘ Women’s squad had plenty of success last regatta season, especially in coxless fours. Fi Gammond was a member of their Town Challenge Cup crew at Henley Royal Regatta last season, and they were also quarterfinalists in the Avril Vellacott Cup at Henley Women’s Regatta. Upper Thames also won club coxless fours at Wallingford Regatta at the start of this month. I would expect this pair to be fighting for the top spot here.

Cambridge University Boat Club (M. Freischem & E. Sillar)

The ladies in Light Blue had a stellar run on the Tideway back in April against Oxford, but may have been slightly disappointed with their lack of hardware at BUCS Regatta a few weeks later. Cambridge have two pairs entered on Saturday under Mia Freischem and Ellie Sillar, who formed the bow pair of the Blondie crew at the Boat Races, and together placed second in the B-final in women’s intermediate pairs at BUCS Regatta. They appear to have changed combinations since then, so seeing how they fare on Saturday will be interesting.

Shiplake College

After a spectacular weekend at the National Schools’ Regatta, where Shiplake took home the spoils in both girls’ and open championship eight, the victorious crew appears to have broken down into four pairs to race this category on Saturday. The pair under A. Dargue on the start order may contain Amelia Westbrook, who raced the women’s eight at the U19 World Rowing Championships in 2024, and has had plenty of success at GB trials so far this year, so I would expect this to be their fastest combination.

University of Limerick/University of Galway

Many Irish clubs make an annual trip over to race at the Metropolitan Regatta, and the start order, especially on Sunday, is saturated with crews from the Emerald Isle. University of Galway are racing in an eight on the Saturday, and similar to Shiplake, are breaking down their crew into four pairs for Sunday’s racing, and I think one of them may take the win there. University of Limerick placed second in women’s senior pairs at the Irish University Championships, and they have two pairs entered on Saturday, so also should be a crew to watch out for.

Prediction

I think Leander should take the win here, but will get challenged by Shiplake. With a lot of the big names racing only on Saturday, Sunday’s racing could be anyone’s game.