Photo Credit: Rowing NSW
The NSW Sports Club Centenary Trophy for Championship Women’s Elite Eights has been a hotly contested one over the years, with winners coming from every high-performance club in Sydney and Melbourne. Over the past decade, wins have been traded between Sydney University, Melbourne University, and Mercantile, whilst Sydney Rowing Club has regularly found themselves on the lower rungs of the podium. The elite eights are one of the ‘blue riband’ events at the championships, meaning that no crew may be comprised of more than one club. As a result, this event is oozing with club pride, with bragging rights on the line for senior national team athletes when they return to their training centres.
This year, we see an injection of youth into the field. With the retirement of many 2024 Olympians, a new generation has moved into the National Training Centres. Compounding this, the NTCs aren’t racing in any official capacity, with many of these athletes having the weekend off and electing not to race. Subsequently, many of these crews have been training together out of their clubs, preparing specifically for this event. This year’s race will be a true show of the strength and depth present in the clubs entered.
Melbourne University Boat Club
The reigning champions in this event, Melbourne University Boat Club will be eager to prove themselves as they enter a significantly changed lineup. Olympians Lucy Stephan and Amanda Bateman have led MUBC‘s entries for the last two years, but this year, they will make the trip up the Hume with a number of fresh faces in the crew. Australian representatives Laura Foley, Eliza Gaffney, and Romy Cantwell will be looking to make it a hat-trick in 2025, whilst Georgie Gleeson joins the crew, having won the event for Sydney University Boat Club in 2021 and 2022, and Mercantile in 2019. Also adding to the experience of the crew is Emma Dyke, who knows a thing or two about eights racing, having won silver for New Zealand at the Tokyo Olympic Games. While the Head of the Yarra was officially cancelled, it is rumoured that MUBC did take honours at the unofficial event before it was called off. This crew will come into this race brimming with confidence and will certainly be right up the pointy end come the final strokes.
Sydney Rowing Club
Despite being their home race, a win in the women’s elite eight has eluded Sydney Rowing Club since 2002. Last year’s combination were determined to set that straight, jumping the much fancied MUBC crew out of the blocks and leading them all the way to the 1800m mark, where they were rowed through. After leading for that long, it was a bitter pill to swallow, knowing they’d need to wait another year. This year sees the departure of 2024 Olympians Sarah Hawe, Harriet Hudson, and Samy Morton, replaced by the youth of 2023 NSW Youth Eight winner Freya Neville, 2022 Australian Junior representative Talisa Knoke-Driver, and 2023 New Zealand Junior representative Nicole Vance. These three will be looking to the returning athletes in the stern, Isabella Scammell, Caitlin McManus-Barrett, and Issy Furrer – all of whom are underage World Championship medallists – who will be bearing the pain of last year’s race. On paper, this crew isn’t quite as well-credentialled as MUBC, however all of these athletes have been training out of SRC together all season, which should give them enough of an edge to compete for the win here.
Sydney University Boat Club
One never to be discounted in this race, Sydney University Boat Club have found themselves atop the podium in the elite women’s eight more times than any other club in the past decade, with four crowns since 2015. Last year’s crew took a lonely bronze, almost twelve seconds adrift of the leading pair, though comfortably ahead of Mercantile in fourth. This year’s combination looks to be a significant step on from last season’s entry, despite the loss of Olympic Bronze Medallist Rowena Meredith. SUBC‘s number one entry is a solely senior eight, with their second entry comprising U23-aged athletes. Freshly-minted NTC athletes Eleanor Price and Emily Sheppard will no doubt be the driving force in this combination, whilst University of Wisconsin graduate Taylor Caudle, Women’s Captain India Hobbs and SUBC Stalwart Jamie Ford will be contributing vast levels of racing experience to the crew. The vast majority of this crew have trained and raced together on Lane Cove for years, a period of time in which their women’s program has gone from strength to strength. Whilst it would be unwise to count SUBC out of a women’s eight race, it remains to be seen whether splitting their squad by age will blunt their peak speed.
University of Queensland Boat Club
A program on the rise, this year’s elite eight race will be a major test for the University of Queensland Boat Club as they look to step on from their win at the QLD State Championships a fortnight ago. UQBC are the only club in this race who have yet to place their hands on the NSW Sports Club Centenary Trophy, despite podium appearances in 06, 09, and 2010. Since taking on the program twelve months ago, Philip Bourguinon has seen some impressive results, not least from the bow seat of this crew Astrid Thomas, who took home four golds and a silver at Lake Wyaralong two weeks ago. The combination travelling south to Sydney is significantly changed from that which was victorious over Kand Rowing Club, bringing in the experience of former lightweight Wallis Russell, as well as 2021 Australian Junior representative Nancy Duncan-Banks. Whilst this crew may lack the firepower of some of the others in this race, it will be fascinating to see how they carry the confidence of their success thus far this season.
Prediction
If last year is anything to go off, this year’s contest for the NSW Sports Club Centenary Trophy is one which will be fought tooth and nail, right down to the closing strokes. It would be easy to look at the eights-rowing experience of MUBC and pen them for the win, but the history books do tell a more fascinating story than that. The last time Sydney won this event was way back in 2002. The year before, they led for much of the race, but fell short by just 1.84 seconds at the flag. With last year’s margin even tighter, I’m predicting Sydney to take the win from Melbourne University. The race for third will be tightly fought between the two Sydney University crews and Mercantile, with their number one crew just sneaking onto the podium.
About The Author
Discover more from JRN
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
