2025 Australian Rowing Championships – Men’s U23 Pairs Preview

Image Credit: Rowing Australia

Some of Australia’s best young rowers will race the U23 men’s pairs at the Australian Rowing Championships on Lake Barrington. Who’ll take the gold? Read below for details on the 2025 competitors.

Adelaide University

It might be a tough regatta for the Adelaide University pair of Max Henry and Arthur Drayton. Both were part of the third-placed eight at the South Australian Championships, with Drayton winning gold and Henry silver in the coxless fours. Henry finished a respectable fifth in the U21 singles at the same regatta, but the step up in age and class may leave them with a battle to make the A-final.

Kand Rowing Club

Another crew with limited racing this season are Kand’s Mackenzie Branch and Jake Gilmore. Gilmore finished fifth with Dylan Rhodes in the men’s pairs at the Queensland Championships and won silver in the open eights; the two also raced in the second time trial in mid-December.

Melbourne University

Gold medallists at this month’s Victorian Championships and bronze medallists at February’s NSW Championships, Tom Foley and Winston Hooper are a good chance to return to the podium here. They’ll hold no fear towards the other Victorian crews, but to upgrade bronze to something better here, they’ll need to find nearly six seconds to Lynch/Wilson and Hoskin/Martin.

Mercantile/Melbourne University

A disappointing row at the Victorian Championships gave Jake Polkinghorne and James Houghton plenty to think about. Comfortably beaten by Foley/Hooper and Scalzo/Thompson, they’ll want to pull that back if they’re to challenge for the podium. A reasonable sixth at the NSW Championships in February, where they were only a few seconds off fourth, shows what this crew is capable of.

Mercantile/UTS Haberfield

Mercantile’s Oliver Scalzo and UTS’s Mackenzie Thompson were the fourth-place crew at the NSW Championships. They’d finished third at the NSW Small Boats Regatta two weeks earlier, finishing a similar time behind the race winners. Silver behind Foley & Hooper at the Victorian Championships shows they can pinch a podium spot at Barrington.

Swan River/Fremantle

A younger crew from out west, Swan River’s Harper Davies and Fremantle’s Oscar Lourie form a quarter of the Western Australian men’s youth eight. That may hinder their chances though – the youth eights are U21, meaning they’re up against plenty of rowers with an extra couple of years’ worth of experience. It will be unlikely to bother them too much, though, leaving them the event’s dark horses.

Sydney

Fourth at Small Boats, fifth at NSW Championships, and third at the Sydney Rowing Club Regatta. Sydney Rowing Club’s Hugh Harrold and Macarthur Bucknell have been there or thereabouts the entire season without a standout performance. Given those performances so far, it wouldn’t surprise me to see this crew finish sixth overall out of 11.

Sydney/University of Queensland

One of the front-runners – but are they the winners? Sydney’s Alec Hoskin won this event at the NSW Championships, but that was with Kand’s Darcy Watter. Paired with the University of Queensland’s Monty Martin, they’ve finished behind the UTS pair of Lynch and Wilson at the Small Boats and Sydney Rowing Club Regattas, albeit by less than a second in the last-mentioned. They’ll be frenemies on Sunday, though, with Hoskin rowing for NSW and Martin for Queensland in the King’s Cup.

Toowong

A crew with limited racing this season, Toowong’s Moss Murphy and Joseph Petrie-Repar may struggle to make the A-final here. Both were part of a bronze-medal-winning composite in the men’s eight at the Queensland Championships but had poor NSW Championship results, with neither making it out of their singles heats.

UTS Haberfield

The black, white and teal of UTS have two crews in this race, including favourites Joe Lynch and Joshua Wilson. The 2022 junior coxed four world champions only have one loss this season, and that is due to a Hoskin/Watter crew not racing this event in Tasmania. It was a close-run thing against Hoskin and Martin at the Sydney Rowing Club Regatta earlier this month, with Lynch and Wilson pipping the composite by less than a second. Both also make their Kings Cup debuts for NSW on Sunday.

There’s less pressure on the second UTS crew of Lawson Banks and Brandon Smith. Smith finished seventh at the NSW Championships with Will Clubb before the Banks/Smith combination finished fourth at the Sydney Rowing Club Regatta. They’ll do well in finishing mid-field in a strong group at the national championships.

Prediction

UTS or the Sydney/UQ composite? There’s little doubt these two will take the gold and silver, although little separates the two. We’re going with Lynch and Wilson to pip Hoskin and Martin, with Melbourne University’s Foley and Hooper to take bronze.

About The Author