Rowing Down Under
Catch-up on all the action from the Australian Rowing Championships
Image Credit: Rowing Australia
Few trophies in Australian women’s rowing carry the prestige of the Nell Slatter Trophy. Awarded to the Interstate women’s single sculls winner, the trophy has seemingly found a permanent home in Sydney with New South Wales winning the last five times. Can anyone snatch the trophy away?
Australian Capital Territory
The ACT’s Catherine Khan has had a breakthrough 12 months, spending the last month training with the National Training Centre in Penrith. Consecutive bronzes in the open women’s singles at the Australian Rowing Championships showed her talent, while a heat win at the NSW Championships led to fifth in the final. There’s only one rower that beat her there in this race, though – although that happens to be the reigning Nell Slatter Trophy holder, Tara Rigney.
New South Wales
It’s been a long time since New South Wales’ Tara Rigney raced an Australian 2km scull as anything other than the favourite. While she’s taking a year off from full-time training in 2025, she still showed blistering speed with a win at the NSW Championships in February. The winner in 2021, 2023 and 2024, Rigney will look to make it four from four at the scene of her very first trophy win. She’s also the only athlete not making her Nell Slatter Trophy debut in this race.
Queensland
The Queenslanders have picked one for the future in Astrid Thomas. The University of Queensland sculler won the open women’s sculls this year – an astounding achievement when you consider she’s rowing the U19 sculls for her club here. An U19 sculls win at the NSW Championships showed her class in her age group, while her heat win in tricky conditions showed her ability to keep the boat moving. Changing wind conditions make it difficult to compare her U19 winning time with the others, but there’s little doubt that she’ll lift the trophy at some point for Queensland.
Victoria
Another fast junior, Romy Cantwell, missed out on the Victorian state championship by just 0.21 seconds. She did leave February’s NSW Championships with U23 sculling gold in a time that would have placed her sixth in the open women’s sculls. A shock loss in the U23 semifinal left her in that B-final, although she won that race convincingly on the Thursday.
Western Australia
Is this the dark horse of the race? You don’t often see Bronwyn Cox with an oar in each hand, with the University of WA rower making all her international appearances – including the last two Olympic Games – in sweep events. She’s still sweeping but is racing the open and Interstate sculls at this year’s Australian Rowing Championships. She’s already finished second in the open sculls and might be the wildcard that can beat Tara Rigney.
Prediction
It’s difficult to go past the class of New South Wales’ Tara Rigney – so we won’t. The battle for the minor placings will be fascinating, but we’re going with Western Australia’s Bronwyn Cox to take a close silver with the Australian Capital Territory’s Catherine Khan third.
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