Rowing New Zealand named its 2026 World Rowing Championships team on 29 June, with both a women’s eight and a men’s eight heading to Amsterdam for racing from 24-30 August. The squad departs New Zealand on 9 August.
Photo New Zealand’s Oliver Welch, along with his teammate Ben Taylor, have dominated the men’s pair.
Neither eight exists as a standalone training unit. Both are composite crews assembled largely from athletes already entered in other boat classes, and Amsterdam will be the first time this season those combinations race together. There is a potential to upset some of the established lineups, but scheduling risks are always a concern when crews double up at events.
Women’s eight built from four and quad
The women’s eight draws on two existing units. Alana Sherman, Isla Blake, Kate Haines and Ella Cossill come straight from the women’s coxless four, while Olivia Hay, Stella Clayton-Greene, Rebecca Leigh and Veronica Wall double up from the women’s quad. The 2025 World mixed coxed eight bronze medallist, Harry Molloy, coxes. Tom Stannard and James Coote share the coaching, mirroring their respective roles across the four and the quad.
Photo New Zealand women’s quad sculls won silver in World Rowing Cup II in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
The crossover between sweep and sculling athletes within one eight it a break from tradition for the New Zealanders. It points to a programme stretching its depth across boat classes rather than wholly protecting individual boat speed.
Men’s eight mirrors the sweep group
The men’s eight follows similar logic. Ben Taylor and Oliver Welch double up from the coxless pair, while Matt Macdonald, Oliver Maclean, Fred Vavasour and Harry Fitzpatrick carry across from the coxless four. Joshua Vodanovich and Campbell Crouch complete the crew, with Oliver Duncan as cox. Vodanovich, Crouch, and Duncan are the only members of the eight who are not doubling up.
Mike Rodger coaches the men’s pair, four and eight, linking the sweep boats under one coaching structure.
Wider squad
Beyond the eights, New Zealand enters a women’s pair (Katie Lush and Juliette Lequeux), women’s double scull (Eva Hofmans and Sophie Egnot-Johnson), and men’s double scull (Ben Mason and Finn Hamill). The mixed double remains listed as TBC.
Lisa Holton manages the team. Kathryn Glen is the travelling reserve, with Alice Fahey, Arie Magasiva and Oscar Ruston named as non-travelling reserves.
Photo Ben Mason, stroke of the New Zealand men’s double sculls.
Rowing New Zealand, via Boating New Zealand magazine, described the deliberate overlap between the fours and eights as an arrangement that lets rowers build rhythm across boat classes while giving coaching staff flexibility, calling the squad a reflection of “depth, proven performers, and calculated ambition”.
New Zealand’s two eights have not featured in the 2026 World Rowing Cup series and will likely come together on the water only after the squad’s 9 August departure, before making their racing debut in Amsterdam.
