Metropolitan Regatta 2025: Double Gold and Double Silver for Cambridge Rowers
In sunny conditions on the shores of Dorney Lake, the 2025 Met Regatta brought success for Cambridge, with the crews earning four medals.
The Cambridge Men secured back-to-back victories in the Open Championship Eights, finishing four seconds ahead of Leander ‘A’. They also triumphed in the Open Academic Eight, claiming a second gold.
On the women’s side, Cambridge took silver in the Coxless Pair, silver in the Lightweight Coxless Pair and placed fifth in the Women’s Championship Eights after a strong performance in a highly competitive field.
Congratulations to all our athletes for a fantastic showing!
Open Championship Eights05:33.30
Cox: Ollie Boyne
Stroke: Tom Ford
7: George Bourne
6: Douwe De Graaf
5: Luca Ferraro
4: James Robson
3: Tom Macky
2: Noam Mouelle
Bow: Simon Hatcher
Race Report: The CUBC Men took to Met Regatta on Saturday as their last race before Henley. Eager to show their speed early and earn a favourable lane in the cross-wind conditions, they put out a strong performance in the time trial, placing just 0.3 seconds behind an experienced crew from Leander, and clear of the rest of the field.
Undeterred by Leander’s strong performance, Cambridge set out hard off the start in the final, eager to assert themselves over the competition. A small initial lead by Leander quickly faded as the Cambridge Men found their speed 250m into the race, pushing ahead of Leander to a one second advantage at the halfway point. From then on, Cambridge’s base speed propelled them to win the race by a commanding 4 seconds, winning the Championship 8+ category, and setting a strong standard ahead of the final month of training before Henley.
Open Academic Eights 05:45.20
Cox: Isabelle Fiske-Harrison
Stroke: Matt Edge
7: Luke Beever
6: Simon Nunayon
5: Matt Morgan
4: Thomas Connor
3: Brett Taylor
2: Connor Attridge
Bow: Joe Travis
Women’s Championship Eights 5th 06:27.51
Cox: Jack Nicholas
Stroke: Samy Morton
7: Tash Morrice
6: Claire Collins
5: Sophia Hahn
4: Annie Wertheimer
3: Carys Earl
2: Gemma King
Bow: Katy Hempson
Women’s Coxless Pairs
| Stroke: Mia Freischem, Bow: Arden Berlinger 07:35.38
Race Report: With only a few weeks of training, the new combination had little idea how they would stack up against the competition. After surprising themselves by putting down the fastest time in the time trial, 0.2 seconds ahead of the Upper Thames crew in second place, the final promised some very tight racing. The pair got off to a strong start and held a lead until the last 250 meters. The Upper Thames crew put down a strong sprint finish and managed to clinch victory by half a second, putting the Cambridge pair in second place, 10 seconds ahead of the rest of the field.
5th | Stroke: Ellie Sillar, Bow: Carina Graf 07:52.05
Race Report: A second pair made up of two Blondie athletes (Ellie Sillar and Carina Graf, both Emmanuel College) raced in the Championship Pairs. With an equal 7th place in the time trial amongst strong opposition from home and abroad, they were seeded into the outside lane for the A Final. Despite a challenging start, and tricky cross-wind conditions, they settled on to a very strong base rhythm after the first 250m. With a calm yet relentless drive, they soon closed the margin on the crews ahead of them in the middle 1k of the race. Driven by cheers from the supporters on the bank, they continued to walk through three crews, placing 5th overall.
Lightweight | Stroke: Freya Clarkson, Bow: Madeline Jackson 08:27.10
Race Report: The women’s lightweight pair of Madeline Jackson and Freya Clarkson came together for the first time at Met Regatta after piecing together training around their medical school commitments in recent weeks. In the time trial, they came in second, just 1.5 seconds behind the leading lightweight crew. They had an exciting final against open-weight crews and retained their position of 2nd in their own lightweight category. This was an awesome first race, providing a lot of learning and even more fun as they head into prep for Henley Women’s Regatta.