Gladiators of the boat park. The single scullers never fail to impress with their solitary pursuit of gold and glory. Delivering the drama this year will be a refreshed cast of newcomers and old-timers, including Great Britain’s unbeaten Lauren Henry, sweep-converts, and the full M1x Paris podium.
Women’s Singles
Paris W4x Olympic Champion Lauren Henry has dominated the women’s single sculls this year: she arrives in Shanghai unbeaten across four regattas and 12 races in the single. In her first international race of the season – the heat of the European Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria – she almost set a new world best time. Her time (7:09.76) was two seconds shy of the record set by Rumyana Neykova in 2002.
“I wanted to come here and make a name for myself and I feel like I’ve done that,” said Henry, after winning the European title. “I want to be world champion, I want to be Olympic champion, I want to break the world best time, I want to be the most successful British single sculler ever. I want it all, the whole lot, I just love it.”
To date her closest competition has come from two former Olympic women’s four sweep rowers, Ireland’s Tokyo Olympic Champion Fiona Murtagh (who won silver medals in Plovdiv and Lucerne) and Denmark’s Fiona Nielsen (who lost to Henry in the final of The Princess Royal Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta).
With Dutch Olympic Champion Karolien Florijn and New Zealand stalwart Emma Twigg absent, Viktorija Senkute is the only Paris W1x medallist competing in Shanghai. The Lithuanian Olympic bronze medallist has yet to podium this season, but typically delivers her best results at the major championships.
Canada’s Katie Clark could be a dark horse in this event: she placed fourth at both the Varese and Lucerne world cups – a strong start for this, her debut season in the single.
Other scullers to watch include Tokyo silver medallist Anna Prakaten, who has yet to revive her flash-in-the-pan post-pandemic form, Germany’s three-time under 23 world champion Alexandra Foester, South Africa’s Paige Badenhorst and Belgium’s Mazarine Guilbert.
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Men’s Singles
The men’s single sculls has the largest number of entries (36), and is likely to be one the most fiercely contested events: almost half the scullers are Olympians, including the three Paris M1x Olympic medallists.
Superstar sculler Oliver Zeidler makes a welcome return to the international circuit. The 2025 World Rowing Championships will be Zeidler’s first World Rowing event since banishing his Tokyo demons in Paris.
Rested or rusted? After his emphatic victory at Vaires-sur-Marne, Zeidler switched his focus to study for an MBA. At Henley Royal Regatta, Zeidler’s comeback regatta, the three-time World Champion was felled by Kiwi ex-lightweight Finn Hamill in the semifinal. So has the Olympic Champion’s extended off-season blunted his bladework and nullified his racing nous? Perhaps, but two months of sharpening will have boosted the Bavarian’s chances come China.
The odds aren’t in Zeidler’s favour. It’s been 36 years since a defending M1x Olympic Champion won the following year’s World Rowing Championships, but the last man to do it was German. East Germany’s Thomas Lange won Olympic gold in Seoul in 1988, and the world title in Bled, Slovenia, the next year. (Finland’s Pertti Karppinen is the only other M1x to achieve this feat – he did it in 1985 in Belgium one year after the Los Angeles Games.)
Worryingly for Team Zeidler another Kiwi was deemed better suited to extend New Zealand’s impressive legacy in this boat class. Olympic M4- silver medallist Logan Ullrich has made rapid progress in the single this season; from his seventh place sculling debut in Varese the former Washington Husky leapt to gold two weeks later in Lucerne.
“I dreamed about this for years, I didn’t think it would come that quick in my sculling career. I’m just blown away,” said Ullrich, after the final. A kitchen-sink-throwing sprint finish saw the former Aussie junior overhaul a surprised and exhausted Yauheni Zalaty.
Photo Two-time Olympian Oliver Zeidler receives his Olympic gold medal on the podium in Paris.
Paris Olympic silver medallist Zalaty, of course, will be gunning for gold in China. Known for his cool-headed Paris performance (Zalaty’s bus broke down on the way to his Olympic final causing the organisers to the delay the race by an hour) the independent neutral athlete started the new Olympiad by securing the European title in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
Olympic bronze medallist Simon van Dorp (who lost to Hamill in the quarterfinals of Henley) is another serious podium contender. The former Washington Husky started the season by winning a European silver medal in the men’s quadruple sculls before returning to the single and winning the Varese world cup. “I don’t think I could have hoped for more in this race, so I’m pleased,” said van Dorp after the Varese final.
Other scullers to watch include Tokyo Olympic Champion Stefanos Ntouskos, who won silver in Plovdiv but has since struggled for form, Japan’s Ryuta Arakawa, Lithuania’s Giedrius Bieliauskas, Great Britain’s Tom Barras, and Ireland’s Konan Pazzaia. Pazzaia is a late-comer to the single having started the season medalling in the men’s double with Fintan McCarthy.
Home fans will be cheering Han Wei of China, who failed to qualify for Pairs but made the A-final in Varese this season.
