World Champions! “Cambridge Four” Lead the Charge at the 2025 World Rowing Championships

A week of fantastic racing proved golden for Cambridge at the 2025 World Rowing Championships in Shanghai, China, with three alumni and one current trialist crowned champions, along with a slate of other impressive performances.

Team GB | Men’s Four | Gold
James Robson (Men’s Blue Boat 2025) | Peterhouse
Douwe de Graaf (Men’s Blue Boat 2025) | St Edmund’s
George Bourne (Men’s Blue Boat 2025) | Peterhouse

Making their debut as a crew, the GB Men’s Four, dubbed by CUBC the “Cambridge Four”, brought together three standout rowers from the 2025 Men’s Blue Boat: James Robson, Douwe de Graaf, and George Bourne. After a fantastic week of racing, the crew edged out strong challenges from Romania and the Netherlands in Friday’s final to claim the World Championship title, capping off an extraordinary year for the three victorious Blues.

Speaking to the BBC following their victory, Robson reflected on the crew’s mindset, “We came here thinking we could do it, but we wanted to focus on progressing through the regatta and to get better each time we hit the water. We had a great row in that final. It was quite a battle and we’re just really happy to have got that over the line and get it done!”

On making their debut as a newly formed crew, de Graaf shared with British Rowing, “This feels awesome! We gave ourselves extra pressure by doing it this way – but it’s worked out for us and it makes this high even better.”

Cambridge Chief Men’s Coach Rob Baker hailed the significance of the crew’s performance:

“What a performance over the whole week from the ‘Cambridge/GB Four,’ capped off with a dominant display in the final! We couldn’t be prouder of George, Douwe and James. In many ways this result is a huge justification for all of them. It was Douwe’s and James’ first senior World Championship and George and James both narrowly missed out on Olympic selection last year. And now they have come back and dominated the world. For Team GB’s gold medal to come from three athletes who have trained the majority of the year with us is a great testament to all the work that goes into the CUBC programme.”

Notably, Robson, de Graaf, and Bourne were also part of the Cambridge Henley Grand Eight, which challenged the Dutch national team, now newly crowned World Champions, to within a third of a length.

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Team USA | Women’s Eight | 5th
Megan Lee (Stroke, Women’s Blue Boat 2024, Lucy Cavendish) returned to the stroke seat to lead the US Women’s Eight, delivering a fierce performance in the final. Despite a relatively inexperienced line-up, the American crew held podium contention through the halfway mark before launching a powerful sprint to finish fifth.

Australia | Men’s Eight | 4th
New to the Cambridge programme, Alexander McClean (Hughes Hall) rowed in the 2-seat for Australia. The crew put in a gutsy performance, finishing fourth behind the Dutch, British, and Americans.

Team USA | PR3 Mixed Coxed Four | 4th
Incoming triallist Emelie Eldracher (Fitzwilliam) coxed Team USA’s PR3 Mixed Four. In a thrilling final, they took fourth, just .61 seconds off the podium.

Team South Africa | Women’s Single Sculls | 2nd, B Final
Following her debut in this event during Paris 2024, Paige Badenhorst (Women’s Blue Boat 2022, Magdalene) put in a strong performance to take 2nd place in the B Final, just behind Canada.

Team GB | Reserve
Balancing her full-time schedule as an NHS doctor with her rowing training, Imogen Grant (Women’s Lightweight 2016, Blondie 2016, 17, Women’s Blue Boat 2018, 19, 22, Trinity) served as a reserve for the event in Shanghai.

Image credits: Nordin Catic, Row360, Bankside_Parent