Records fell for Great Britain on day one at the 2025 European Rowing Championships
Fast conditions led to World Best & European Best Times
Thursday 29 May 2025 – Singles stole the headlines on the first day of racing in Plovdiv, as Lauren Henry raced the third fastest time ever in the Women’s Single Sculls. The 7:09.76 time saw her secure a European Best Time and British record. Earlier in the day, Paralympic Champion Benjamin Pritchard maintained his pressure on the PR1 Men’s single sculls (PR1 M1x) field, crossing the line in a World Best Time and British record of 08:47.88. Lauren will return to race in the semi final on Friday. Benjamin is through to the A final on Saturday.
Speaking after the race, Lauren said: “It’s an exciting result for my first senior International single race. I’m so happy to execute my plan. Obviously, things can change through the regatta, but I’m really pleased with it, especially as last time I raced the single at U23 level, I wasn’t happy with how it went. I’ve been focussed this year on coming in and taking what I’d learnt from those experiences and making myself a better and hopefully a more competitive athlete. It’s been a lot of work and all credit goes to my coach Andrew Randell for being the brains behind this performance and being there for me every day in training. Andrew always says to me, it’s about having an ordinary performance on an extraordinary day, and I feel like that’s what we achieved today.”
Benjamin Pritchard was also happy with his World best time, especially in light of a ‘performance reset’ for the LA cycle, “We’ve got a mantra back at British Rowing, where once the 2024 season was done, it was back to zero. Yes, I’m the Paralympic Champion, but this is a whole new cycle. You don’t know what anyone else has done in the winter, you don’t know what new athletes are coming through, so you have to keep up the training to keep moving on.
“That said, I was a bit apprehensive coming into this because I only came back late January, so I still feel like I’m early in my season preparations, but to go out there and get that World best time, it shows that the hard work that I’m doing – juggling being an athlete, trying to do some work in the city and also to be a dad – it shows that it’s worth it. I love this sport, I love what I do on the water, and I love rowing.”
The Men’s quadruple sculls (M4x) were thrilled to cross the line first in their heat. Cedol Dafydd, Callum Dixon, Matt Haywood and Rory Harris will race again in the semi final. Callum said: “It’s nice to win the first one and set the standard for what we expect. It’s a new crew with new energy and enthusiasm with Cedol and Rory coming in. Sometimes it’s a bit daunting, realising you might be one of the more experienced people in the crew. But it’s been a really fun, nice new experience and definitely feels like we’ve got more energy to bring to the final.”
Paris Olympic Champion Lola Anderson, Olympic bronze medallist Becky Wilde and debutants, Sarah McKay and Cam Nyland put in a solid row to finish their Women’s Quadruple Sculls (W4x) heat in second place, progressing directly to the A final.
Sarah, who was making her international racing debut, admitted that it felt like a ‘pinch me’ moment in her life. “That was amazing! I was sitting at the start with Cam, who is also new, and we looked around to see what great experience we have around us in Lola and Becky, who have been so good and supportive with this project. I just tried not to let the nerves get to me, and was thinking ‘this feels just like racing at BUCS’ with all the music at the start, and it has a similar layout to Nottingham in a way… so it felt fairly familiar. It’s nice to remember where you’ve been and where you are now.”
A few hours after taking the second qualification spot in their earlier heat, the Women’s Pair (W2-) of Eleanor Brinkhoff and Megan Slabbert joined the Women’s Four (W4-) of Daisy Bellamy, Lauren Irwin, Martha Birtles and Heidi Long, who had finished third in their preliminary race, as well as Amelia Standing, Juliette Perry and cox, Jack Tottem to secure a second place finish in the Women’s Eight (W8+). All three crews will now race again in their respective A finals.
Eleanor said: “It’s my first Europeans so I’m excited to make two A finals over the weekend especially with two polar opposite boat classes. In the pair, Megan and I have been working really hard over the last couple of weeks to find a good rhythm and then, with the eight, it’s fun to get out with the bigger group and it really shows the depth we have in the team. Overall I’m just excited to get stuck into the finals.”
It was also a second place finish and direct to A final progression for the Men’s eight, which featured a mix of returning and Project LA athletes. Paris 2024 bronze medallist Matt Aldridge was joined by Will Stewart, Matt Rowe, Miles Beeson, Fergus Woolnough, David Bewicke-Copley, Sam Nunn, Archie Drummond and cox, Will Denegri.
David, who has just returned to the team said: “It’s been three years since my last race so obviously this is why we do it and it feels amazing to be back in the same boat I was in before with a whole new bunch of people and start to build something for the next four years. I think that was the first full track piece that we’ve actually done as a crew. It was pretty bouncy but we learned a lot and still have a few days to put something together for the final on Sunday.”
Both the Men’s and Women’s double sculls took advantage of the new progression system. Vwairé Obukohwo and Freya Keto (W2x) finished 6th fastest overall to make the A final while Tobias Schröder and Jamie Gare (M2x) finished 12th fastest overall to progress to the semi finals.
Vwairé said: “The new progression system definitely added some excitement to it because if you’re not winning, towards the end, you can think, let’s paddle and save it for the B final. But with this new progression system, it really is anyone’s game. I remember Freya shouting ‘time!’ in the last few hundred, so we pushed it and by some miracle, we were on the right side of it today.”
It was a similar sense of relief from the men, “It was a bit of a long wait to find out if we’d made it through,” Tobias said, “I guess that adds to the excitement, but the wait for us was quite a nervy feeling. We’re pleased that we’ve got the job done.”
2024 European Champions and Paralympic silver medallists Sam Murray and Annie Caddick finished second in the PR3 mixed double sculls (PR3 Mix 2x) preliminary race.
Joshua Bowesman-Jones, Dan Graham, James Vogel and Jake Wincomb were fourth in the Men’s four (M4-), and will now row again in the B final. Aidan Thompson will race in the Men’s single sculls (M1x) C final after finishing fourth in his heat.
