Back to back Victor Ludorum titles for Wallingford RC at the British Rowing Club Championships
An epic set of finals provided the perfect crescendo for the 2025 British Rowing Club Championships
Credit: AllMarkOne
For the second year in a row, Wallingford RC have won the Victor Ludorum at the British Rowing Club Championships. After winning the junior and overall VLs at the inaugural Club Championships 12 months ago, the Oxfordshire-based club have repeated the feat, lifting both trophies under the Nottingham sun. In the Senior VL Bath University BC were victorious after having a terrific Championships.
Speaking after an incredible four days of racing, Club Captain Geoff Brown was delighted with the whole club’s performances. “It’s brilliant. We’ve been building this junior programme for three or four years. It’s grown from about 40 kids across all age groups to about 130 now, so it means a hell of a lot,” he said.
“It’s been brilliant from all of them. I think the most exciting race was probably day three when our J16 girls won a gold medal, and that was really emotional for everyone. We had some brilliant performances from across the board, and today in the J14s and J15s, getting into B Finals is great for us. We won four gold medals this weekend, which has been brilliant, and we’re looking forward to next year for sure.”
Spectators were treated to a flurry of medals during the morning racing throughout the adaptive categories. The first of the medal finals, the Open Junior AR-O Single Scull was won by Rohan Ladva while Adam Hussain stormed to victory in the Open AR1/2 event. In the AR3 categories, there was success for Sophie Brown and James King in the Women’s and Open events, respectively. On his way to the gold medal, King beat last year’s champion, Colin Wallace, who continues his return to rowing following his MS diagnosis.
During the afternoon session, the J14s and J15s took centre stage over the 1000m distance. The first of the A Finals was for the Open J14 Single Sculls, which saw a clear water win for Exeter RC’s George Byrnes. His performance continued a formidable run of form that saw him break the Championship record, which has stood since 2022, earlier in the day.
“I loved it, absolutely loved it,” said George. “I felt confident I’d put enough work in the first 500m that I could hold them off. I wanted to go for it and launch like a scalded cat and hopefully stay ahead!”
In the Women’s event, Dana Simpson from Chester le Street ARC came from behind to row through Peterborough City RC and Nottingham & Union RC to snatch gold in the final few strokes in a thrilling A Final.
“During the race, I was thinking that I’m going to get bronze as I was in third place for most of the race,” explained Dana.
“Then I heard everyone shout, and I remembered all the training I’ve done all year and how much I wanted it. I pushed really hard and my legs burned, but I thought that it’s only four minutes and that I’d regret it if I didn’t go for it, so I pushed as hard as I could.
“It means the world. I have a friend called Olivia, and I saw her get a gold medal last year. I thought, ‘I would love to get that next year when I’m the right age,’ so it feels really good and I know my younger self would have been so proud.”
The J15 Single Sculls were won by Hugh Hall-Craggs from Tideway Scullers and Madeleine Banfield of City of Bristol RC, respectively.
After one of the closest finals of the day, Madeleine was in disbelief as she crossed the finish line after pushing her bow ball ahead in the final 100m. “I saw 250m left and couldn’t even tell where I was, but I just kept going and gave it all I had,” said the newly crowned British Champion.
“I didn’t even know I’d won. I wasn’t looking. I was just focusing on getting all the strokes I could get in. I only knew I’d won from all the screaming on the side at the end.”
Across the doubles, there were some thrilling finales, not least the Open J14 event which saw A B Severn triumph over Burton Leander. Exeter picked up their second win of the day as they won the Women’s A Final. The Women’s J15 doubles were just as epic. Each of the races leading up to the A Finals just got better and better, meaning Trent RC came out on top of an absolute thriller. Aberdeen Schools Rowing Association took gold in the Open event, which was swiftly followed by some of the best celebrations seen all afternoon.
“I thought the celebration was a bit too much. I thought we were going to go in! We always thought we were going to be the underdogs, and I can’t quite believe what we’ve done,” said Sandy Bain from the victorious Aberdeen crew.
The curtain call at this year’s Club Championships was the J14 Coxed Quads. The A Final of the Open event was nail-biting from start to finish. Hereford RC held off a charging Leeds RC crew to be crowned British Champion, but a well-orchestrated and well-timed final surge from Walbrook RC saw them sneak past The Windsor Boys’ School to claim a brilliant bronze medal.
The last block of racing went to the Women’s J14 Coxed Quad. It was a series of races befitting the whole Championship, and the C, B, and A Finals delivered some blanket finishes and high-calibre racing. After their club mates won a glorious bronze medal, just 15 minutes earlier, Walbrook RC would end the Championships at the top of the podium, claiming a dominant gold medal.
Speaking after the race, Chiara Forlin said, “It means a lot to me since it’s been with all my friends and I’ve liked it a lot. We didn’t have a great start, but we came through and rowed hard, so that was great.”
Cox Mark Koftaylov summed up the emotions beautifully. “If I could say any three words about the crew, it would be: best crew ever.”
Watch the all of the races back on Champs Live!
