2025 Australian Rowing Championships – Women’s Open Pair Preview

Image Credit: Rowing Australia

The epitome of women’s sweep in Australia will be on display at the 2025 Australian Rowing Championships on Lake Barrington, Tasmania, where the best pair combinations in the country will line up for what promises to be a highly competitive and thrilling event for athletes and spectators alike.

These Championships will be the first and final domestic opportunity of this season’s new year for the athletes from the Women’s National Training Centre to showcase the physical and technical effects of their efforts on the Nepean River and to gauge a sense of where they stand in the field ahead of selection trials in the coming weeks. As an event requirement for selection into the Australian Senior Rowing Team, this field of 10 features a mix of both NTC-based pairs alongside strong combinations from Sydney, Queensland, and Canberra. As a result, we can expect to be treated to an exciting final come Thursday morning as pairs vie for the all-important national title. 

Melbourne University/Swan River – Eliza Gaffney and Jacqui Swick:

This Women’s National Training Centre combination brings together Western Australia’s Jacqui Swick and Victoria’s Eliza Gaffney, both established members of the Australian senior team. Swick played a pivotal role in the five-seat of the Australian women’s eight last year, helping the crew secure a historic fourth-place finish at the Paris Olympic Games – the nation’s best result in this boat class. Despite being just 22, Swick has an impressive rowing resume, including gold medals in the women’s eight at the 2022 World Rowing Cup III, 2023 World Rowing Cup II, and 2024 World Rowing Cup III, as well as an U23 World Rowing Championship medal.

Gaffney, no stranger to high-pressure racing herself, will bring valuable experience to this crew, having raced this boat class frequently last season. She teamed up with Samantha Morton to win the B-final of the women’s pair at the 2024 World Rowing Cup III, and narrowly missed out on reaching the Henley Royal Regatta final, falling in the semifinals of The Hambleton Pairs Challenge Cup. She and Swick also have experience racing together, having claimed bronze in the Australian women’s U23 four at the 2022 U23 World Rowing Championships.

This combination appears to be one of the top-ranked NTC pairs, and we can look forward to witnessing the high-calibre racing this duo is capable of producing.

Sydney University/Adelaide University – Jamie Ford and Ella Bramwell.

Jamie Ford and Ella Bramwell are another women’s NTC combination worth looking out for. Like Swick, Adelaide’s Bramwell was a member of the gold medal-winning women’s eight at the 2022 World Rowing Cup III and, more recently, a member of the 2024 Australia A Squad, that competed at the first World Rowing Cup in Varese.

Following the Australia A campaign, both Bramwell and Ford spent the British summer training at Leander Club, where they competed in the club’s top-ranked eight, reaching the semifinals of Henley Royal Regatta. Ford, a highly respected and accomplished athlete, has been a frequent name in Australian rowing and has played an integral role in Sydney University Boat Club’s success. It will be hard to beat the toughness and stamina of this crew, especially through the back end of the race. This pair is capable of the win, and we can expect they will push this field down to the line come Thursday.

Mercantile/UTS Haberfield – Emmie Frederico and Georgie Rowe.

Having had a brief hiatus from sweep rowing, more commonly racing with two oars this season, Frederico returns to the sweep scene as a new addition to the women’s NTC and will combine with ergo world record holder, Georgie Rowe. This fresh combination boasts plenty of power and experience in Rowe in the stroke seat, and endurance of Frederico in the bow, making them an exciting pairing.

Rowe, a two-time Olympian, will be the most experienced in the field, having medalled at multiple World Rowing Championships and World Rowing Cups since her international debut in 2018. Frederico, who returned to Melbourne last year upon graduating from Syracuse University in the US, is a U23 world champion starting in 2022, and will no doubt be looking to make an impact in her first pair hit out of the season. Expect this crew to be fast-starting and powerful.

Sydney University – Eleanor Price and Emily Sheppard:

One of just three non-composite crews, Sydney University’s Eleanor Price and Emily Sheppard traded the Lane Cove River for the Nepean at the beginning of the year. Sheppard, an U23 world champion in the women’s coxed four in 2023 will have benefited from a stint at Leander last year, where she competed in The Town Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta. Price, meanwhile, was part of Australia’s gold medal-winning women’s eight at the 2022 World Rowing Cup III, alongside Bramwell and Swick, and has been another crucial member of Sydney University’s recent success.

Both athletes are well-credentialed, representing Australia A at World Rowing Cup I and the Head of Shanghai Regatta last year. Their depth of experience and familiarity with racing together will make this combination worth looking out for on Lake Barrington.

Other notable mentions:

Not to be counted out are the non-NTC combinations, particularly the composites from Sydney University/Sydney of Zoe McKellar and Caitlin McManus-Barrett and Zara Collisson and Laura Foley of Sydney University/Melbourne University. All four athletes bring international racing experience and have recently spent time at the Women’s NTC on training camps, gaining valuable exposure to the NTC training environment and training alongside the nation’s best sweepers. With this preparation, these crews could emerge as the dark horses of this event and are most capable of causing an upset.

Prediction:

With this being the first glimpse of NTC athletes racing this year and the debut of several new combinations, predicting the podium is a challenge. However, it is inevitable that this race will be fast, with tight margins from start to finish, and that the national title could go the way of many crews in this field.

I anticipate Rowe and Frederico will be fast starting but could face an early challenge from Gaffney and Swick, who I predict will claim podium honours and the national title. Ford and Bramwell will also be strong through the middle part of the race and will be Gaffney and Swick’s biggest challenger for the podium’s top spot. Price and Sheppard’s experience together could give them the edge in the battle for the final spot on the podium, but they will have to fend off both their NTC counterparts in Rowe and Frederico, as well as determined challenges from McManus-Barrett and McKellar, and the combination of Collisson and Foley.

First – Melbourne University/Swan River – Eliza Gaffney and Jacqui Swick

Second – Sydney University/Adelaide University – Jamie Ford and Ella Bramwell

Third – Mercantile/UTS Haberfield – Emmie Frederico and Georgie Rowe

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