Holders: Leander Club
Entries: 14 (to be reduced to 8 by qualifying races)
Six crews have been pre-qualified and the likely favourites to take the title are Danmarks Rocenter. This is a boat with a mix of youth and experience. Leading the crew is Frida Nielsen. She raced in this boat class at the Tokyo Olympics finishing eighth. She’s joined by Astrid Steenberg, who raced in the W8 at the 2019 World Championships, Julie Poulsen (seventh in the BW8 in 2017) and Marie Johannesen who made her international debut this season. This crew won silver behind Great Britain at the Belgrade World Cup.
New Zealand (racing as Waiariki Rowing Club) has two of the crew that finished 11th in 2019; Davina Waddy and Phoebe Spoors both from Canterbury Rowing Club. Beth Ross, from Petone Rowing Club, was in the W8 that won gold at the 2019 World Championships and silver in Tokyo. The final member of the crew is Catherine Layburn from North Shore – she made her senior debut this season having raced on the U23 team in 2018 and 2019. This quartet made their season’s debut in Poznan at the second World Cup where they finished fifth.
Rowing Australia also have four athletes that raced at the Poznan World Cup (although not as a W4-). All four of the crew made their senior international debuts in Poznan – Eliza Gaffney and Genevieve Hart raced in the W2- where they finished 11th and Paige Barr and Jacqueline Swick raced in the W8 that won a bronze medal. This is very much a development crew for Australia but depending on the draw they could get quite far in the regatta.
Another pre-qualified crew is a Sydney Rowing Club and Nereus composite. This boat is led by the experienced Sarah Hawe who raced in the Australian W8 at the Tokyo Olympics. She’s joined by fellow Aussie Lauren Graham. She rowed for Australia at the 2018 Junior World Championships winning a silver medal and was selected for the Australian U23 team last year (racing at their “World Cup Simulation Regatta”). The Nereus contingent is made up of Jessy Vermeer and Alexandra Nothdurft. They are both students at Ohio State University and both also raced for the Netherlands U23 team, Vermeer winning silver in the BW8 in 2021 and Nothdurft a bronze in the BW4+ in 2019. This crew could well be the dark horses of the event and are certainly confident of doing well.
The Stewards have pre-qualified two British boats; the first is Cambridge University & Leander Club. This boat contains half of the GB U23 World Championship winning boat from 2021, Daisy Bellamy and Lettuce Cabot. They are joined by three-time Cambridge Blue, Sarah Portsmouth, and Lauren Carey who raced in the Yale Varsity crew at the NCAA Championships and previously won the Wargrave Challenge Cup with Leander Club.
The second home pre-qualified boat is Leander Club A. This crew won Championship Coxless Fours at Henley Women’s Regatta and consists of Sam Courty, Juliette Perry, Isobel Powell and Issy Hawes. Courty rowed for Great Britain at the 2019 World Championships finishing 10th in the W2-. Perry is an Oxford Blue and rowed for GB at the European U23 Championships. Powell raced in the U23 BW8 in 2017 and both she and Hawes made their senior debuts earlier this season rowing in the GB W8 that won the Windermere Cup in Seattle.
The other entries will all face qualifiers on Friday, with just two spots available from eight crews racing. Brown University competed at the Henley Women’s Regatta reaching the final before losing to Leander. Their crew is a mix of their second and third Varsity Eights with Jessica Hooper and Amanda Pyne from the 2V and Clara Warmath and Bisbee Scott from the 3V.
A crew who are probably disappointed not to pre-qualify are Cambridge University. They have half of the winning Blue Boat from this year’s Boat Race; Adrianna Perez Rotondo, Bronya Sykes, Paige Badenhorst and Caoimhe Dempsey. Three of this crew won Championship Fours at BUCS earlier this season (with lightweight Olympian Imogen Grant rowing instead of Paige Badenhorst).
Leander also have two more crews hoping to qualify; both are development boats made up of athletes who have been studying in the US.
The Oxford Brookes University & Oxford University Women’s Boat Club composite will be confident of gaining one of the two available slots; their boat includes Taylor Caudle who rowed in the Brookes W8 that won Champ 8’s at Henley Women’s Regatta, Oxford Blue and Canadian Universities Champion, Julie Lindsay and Aisling Hayes who rowed for Brookes in Ghent winning gold in the W8.
Molesey Boat Club’s entry includes U23 silver medallist Jo Gannon and GB trialist Esme Jones.
Crews who may be entering qualifiers more in hope than expectation are Nottingham University, who got knocked out in the second round at Henley Women’s Regatta and Worcester Rowing Club (who reached the semi finals of Aspirational Clubs at Henley Women’s.
Predictions: The form guide says that Danmarks Rocenter are the crew to beat, but it’ll be interesting to see who gets to the final and whether any of the non-international boats can cause an upset en-route to the final.
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