Row360's Head of the Charles coverage brought to you by SparksSam Melvin spent 4,702 metres in Finn Hamill's wake on Saturday and beat him on the clock. The American started second behind the two-time defending champion at the Head of the Charles. He was eight seconds down at Riverside and three behind at Anderson Bridge. He then wound it up along the final straight to win the Championship Single in 17:50.682, by less than a second, and collect $10,000.
Knowing Hamill’s record at this event, Melvin took a canny approach to steering the famously tricky course. "I tried to follow his line the entire race," he told the Boston Globe. "Finn obviously knows how to steer it. Every time I looked back it seemed like he was the same distance and that we were going to go stroke for stroke the entire time. I'm happy I came out on the right side."
Hamill could see Melvin closing before Eliot Bridge. "Coming to the finish line I thought Sam had caught me by quite a bit," the New Zealander said. "For it to be less than a second, that's painful, but it's also good to be that close."No man has won three consecutive Charles singles titles since Greg Walker in 1993. Hamill came closer than most, and he got there his way. Last year he told Row360 how he had pushed Rowing New Zealand to let him train in the single rather than follow the team programme: “Something I struggled with early on was being part of the system. I know I was labelled as difficult to manage. I like to do things my own way. That probably didn't do me many favours."
Melvin's win completes a breakthrough season. The former Columbia lightweight won World Cup II in Plovdiv, took bronze in Lucerne and finished fourth at the World Championships in Amsterdam, the USA's best World Championship result in the men's single since 1997. Norway's Jonas Juel, who took bronze just ahead of him there, warned afterwards: "His races are often very evenly paced: even if he's far off in the beginning, you know he'll be back later that race." Hamill now knows that too.
Joyce Sets the Pace
Grace Joyce was due to start second in the women's race. When former winner Emily Kallfelz withdrew injured, Joyce started at the head of the field. She stayed in front, finishing in 20:01.596, six seconds clear of Kristi Wagner.
Joyce had finished third, fourth and sixth on previous visits, including fourth last year. "It's my favorite regatta so winning it is unreal," she said. "No words." She had changed her approach for the autumn: "In the past there have been some races where I've been unsure of myself. But going into this fall I made a commitment to myself to 100 percent believe in myself."
Mothership: Wagner Plots a Path to LA
For runner-up Wagner, the Charles marked another step in a comeback that has already taken her to the World Championship podium. The two-time Olympian, fifth in the double in Tokyo and ninth in Paris, gave birth to her daughter Benedetta, known as Benni, in May 2025. She was back racing on the Charles five months later, then won World Championship bronze in the quad this summer.
She is now aiming for Los Angeles 2028, where she could become the second American rower to compete at the Olympics after giving birth. Lianne Nelson was the first, winning silver in Athens with her two-year-old daughter, Grace, in tow.
The medical advice offered to Wagner about training during pregnancy left her with some uncertainty. "The [obstetrician] tells you, 'Don't do anything' or 'Do what you feel comfortable with,'" she told the Globe. "But doing nothing and doing what I feel comfortable with are two completely different things."
Gevvie Stone, her former teammate and a medical doctor, brings both clinical and racing experience: she is a three-time Olympian, Rio single sculls silver medallist and ten-time Charles Championship Single winner. “USRowing is learning and getting better, and Kristi is forcing them to do that faster than they would have otherwise,” said Stone. “They know how special Kristi is as an athlete, so they are adapting, which is great to see, because it will help other athletes in the future.”
Making the 2028 team is Wagner's goal, but the Games did not dictate the timing of her pregnancy. Nor will they take precedence over her family: if rowing no longer works for them, she will stop, even before Los Angeles.
"That's a goal, and that's a great goal, and I hope that I continue to that point and make the Olympic team and have a great time at the Olympics," she said. "But now I think it's more about it not only being a positive experience for me, but for my whole family."
