Holder: Lola Anderson
Entries: 23 (reduced to 16 by qualifying races)
Half of the field in this event raced at the Tokyo Olympics (although not all in the single) and four of them won medals.
The hottest of red-hot favourites in this event is Emma Twigg of Waiariki Rowing Club. She’s won the Princess Royal twice so far (in 2009 and 2019) and made the final in 2013 (losing to Mikra Knapkova). She’s the reigning Olympic champion and was World Champion in 2014 and runner-up in 2013 and 2019. She’s been a member of the senior New Zealand team since 2006 and has been racing in the single since 2007.
The biggest challenger to Twigg will, assuming she’s healthy, come from Magdalena Lobnig of Austria (racing as Völkermarkter Sport- und Turnverein 1868). She was forced to withdraw from the Belgrade World Cup, but a fully fit Lobnig will pose a serious challenge to the Kiwi. She won bronze in Tokyo and has World Championship bronze medals from 2017 and 2018. She won her first senior title in 2016, winning the European Championships in Brandenburg.
Kara Kohler of the USA (racing for Texas Rowing Center) finished ninth at the Tokyo Games. She raced at the Poznan World Cup earlier this month winning a bronze medal in the W2X. She’s an Olympic bronze medallist in the W4X from the London Games and also won World Championship bronze in 2019.
Ria Thompson from the University of Queensland is another Tokyo Olympic medallist. She won bronze as a member of the W4X and was the U23 BW1x World Champion in 2019.
Waiariki Rowing Club have two further scullers in the event, Lucy Spoors and Kristen Froude. Spoors was a member of the Women’s Eight that won Olympic silver in Tokyo. She last raced internationally in the single back in 2016 placing 11th at the final World Cup. Froude won U23 medals for New Zealand in 2013 and 2014. She made her senior debut in 2015 and this season was a member of the w4X that finished eighth at the Poznan World Cup.
The second US Olympian racing is Alison Rusher from Cambridge Boat Club in Boston. She made her senior international debut at the Tokyo Games and raced in the US W4x that finished tenth. In 2018 she was a member of the BW8 that won bronze at the World Championships.
Diana Dymchenko is racing for Rowing Club Baku in Azerbaijan. The Ukrainian won the second World Cup of 2021 having narrowly missed qualifying for Tokyo with a fourth place at the Final Olympic Qualifying Regatta. She made the A-Final of the 2021 European Championships and was 12th at the 2019 Worlds.
Hannah Scott of Bann Rowing Club is the current Great Britain open-weight single sculler. Scott was a member of the W4X that finished seventh in Tokyo and took European Silver last year (her first year on the senior team). As an U23 she won silver medals in both 2018 and 2019. She made her debut in the single at the Belgrade World Cup winning an excellent bronze medal.
Imogen Grant raced in the LW2X at the Tokyo Olympics, missing a bronze medal by 1/100th of asecond. She races in Cambridge University colours and was a member of the winning Blue Boat this year. As a singe sculler she has World Championship bronze medals in the LW1X from 2018 and 2019 and was also U23 BLW1X World Champion in 2018.
Lauren Henry of Leicester Rowing Club is one of the rising stars of the British Rowing team. The 21-year-old raced at the U23 World Championships last year finishing fourth in the BW1X. This season she raced at the Metropolitan Regatta winning the W1X by nearly ten seconds.
Emma Kohlmayer is racing under Westminster School colours. The 19-year-old has just finished her freshman year at Yale where she raced in the third Varsity Coxed Four. She’s a Slovakian native and raced for that nation at the 2021 U23 World Championships finishing 13th.
Five scullers made it through qualifying; Molly Harding of Molesey Boat Club (an U23 World Champion from 2019), Brigid Kennedy of Cambridge University (a member of the winning Lightweight Blue Boat this season and also a member of the USA U23 team), Sydney University’s Georgia Miansarrow (World Championship silver medallist in the LW4X from 2018), Avril Walters (racing for St George’s, but another Yale Freshman who rowed in the Third Varsity boat this season) and Tabea Schendekehl of Washington University (she’s a senior German international and raced in the W2- at the 2019 World Championships and won silver in the W8 at the 2020 Europeans. Whilst at Washington she rowed in the Varsity crew that won bronze at the NCAA’s).
Predictions: Can anyone stop Emma Twigg? If Magdalena Lobnig is fit then these two should make the final and produce a great race, but I have to go with the Olympic champion.
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