2025 New Zealand Women’s Crews To Watch

Image Credit: World Rowing

Following an exciting season start in 2024, crews up and down the country will be looking to build into these last two months as preparations begin to select final crews. With not long until the penultimate club regattas of the season—the North Island Club Championships and the South Island Club Championships—we should begin to see crews separate themselves from the pack to try and send a statement before the all-important New Zealand Rowing Championships.

Club Crews To Watch

Waikato Rowing Club

With a ruthless streak in almost all the North Island women’s events thus far, the outstanding Waikato Rowing Club are the clear favourite to take out several events coming into this second half of the season. Their crew placed first and second at the Karapiro Club Regatta in the women’s coxless fours and won the women’s eight, the crew showed impressive speed in this early regatta. Fast forward a few weeks to the KRI Christmas Regatta where they placed first, second and fourth in the senior women’s coxless fours and placed second, third and fourth in open women’s eights, they are undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with. With their success not limited to sweep, the Waikato scullers have also shown excellent pedigree. Placing first, second and fourth in the women’s senior double sculls at the Christmas Regatta proved the club’s deep talent in all boat classes. Hugely impressive wins followed this in the women’s senior single sculls where the two Waikato crews placed first and second, leaving an almost eight-second margin between the second-placed Waikato crew and the third-placed crew. To top this all off, the Waikato women took home a win in the women’s senior coxless quad as well as having their ‘B’ crew place third in the same event. Dominating every single women’s event thus far, the Waikato women’s squad looks poised to have one of the most successful seasons ever in the club’s history. While taking first place is impressive, Waikato have managed to do it repeatedly, with their ‘B’ crews also taking home second or third. Furthermore, their strong placings in the eight show the large squad the club possesses this season, leaving us to wonder if there is any more speed to be gained moving forward.

North Shore Rowing Club

Eyes turn to North Shore Rowing Club, which has been the only club to provide close competition to Waikato this season. Early season results at the Karapiro Club Regatta indicated that there were early signs of a competitive squad, with a third place in the women’s open coxless four event amidst a field of Waikato crews, as well as placing fifth and eighth in the women’s double sculls. To say Waikato have put out an unassailable lead so far would be not far from the truth, as they have dominated the women’s side of club rowing. North Shore will have hopefully looked to gain more speed over this Christmas break to try and close the margins to Waikato. At the Karapiro Christmas Regatta, we saw North Shore place third and fifth in the women’s senior coxless fours once again, albeit with a smaller margin. In the women’s senior coxless quad, the North Shore ‘A’ crew put almost ten seconds into the Waikato ‘B’ crew, which indicates the potential of the North Shore scullers. An impressive second-placed performance in the women’s senior pair will no doubt leave the pairing hungry for more. While North Shore have been the slight underdogs to Waikato in this first half of the season, it would be unwise to count them out.

Dunstan Arm Rowing Club

The Dunstan Arm women’s squad have been looking particularly strong in the South Island across both sweep and scull. A truly impressive outlook from the women’s sculling squad included performances such as placing first, fifth and sixth in the women’s club single sculls. Following this strong performance, the scullers placed first and third in the women’s club double sculls before capping this off with a dominant first and second place in the women’s club coxless quad. Dunstan showed the deep talent in their squad with first and second-placed performances in the women’s open single. Furthermore, their win in the women’s open coxless quad should indicate that the team is not limited to just one club category, as so many clubs across the country are. Such strong performances were not limited to the scullers, though. Several impressive crews took to the water in sweep boats, culminating in a third-placed finish in the women’s open eight. The eight will no doubt be looking to replicate the success in the sculling boats.

As clubs begin to travel to and from their January training camps, several crews will no doubt be eyeing each other as we approach the North Island Club Championships and South Island Club Championships. With Waikato the clear favourite in the North Island across several boat classes, North Shore and West End will look to close and overtake their margins. In the South Island, the ever-impressive Dunstan Arm crew will closely monitor clubs such as Avon as we look forward to this next exciting part of the season.

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