Great Britain win five medals at 2026 World Rowing Cup I in Seville

The Men’s Four and Women’s Single Sculls claim gold and Great Britain finishes third in the medal standings 

Great Britain ended the first World Rowing Cup of the 2026 season with five medals. Two gold, two silvers and one bronze – putting the team third in the medal standing and second in the World Rowing Cup points table.

In the sizzling heat in Seville, reigning World Champions Dan Graham, James Robson, Douwe de Graaf and George Bourne made no mistakes in claiming victory in the Men’s Four. Leading by one second at 500m, the World Champions kept stretching out the margin throughout the race and crossed the line more than five seconds up on France in second place.

Dan said: “It was an amazing race. We’ve really built through the regatta, and that felt like a combination of all the best bits we’ve done so far.”

“We’d been expecting just based on the Dutch’s previous races that it was going to be an absolute humdinger, so that was the mentality coming into it. When you find yourself in that position it’s just a bit of a bonus,” he added.

In one of the closest races of the day, Lauren Henry emerged victorious in the Women’s Single Sculls A-Final, taking the win by 0.14 seconds ahead of Olympic bronze medallist Viktorija Senkute of Lithuania.

Senkute led at the 1000m mark, but Lauren stayed calm and her mid-race pace took her within a second of the Lithuanian with 500m to go. She sprinted early and hard, and claimed the win in a photofinish.

“I always back myself in sprints,” said Lauren. “It was neck and neck and I kind of got a sense with about 100m to go that I was ahead and I just needed to carry on.”

She said the single sculls field was an exciting one to be a part of, adding: “I’m so pleased that I’m a part of that field, it’s amazing to race these incredible women and you never know where the challenge is going to come.”

The Women’s Quadruple Sculls A-Final was a fantastic race. Germany led out of the start but there was nothing between the crews for the majority of the race. Sarah McKay, Hannah Scott, Lola Anderson and Finn Stratton put in an excellent mid-race push to bring them up to the Germans, but could not quite close out the sprint, claiming silver over the line.

“That was a race!” said Sarah. “So close. We wanted to be on the other side of it, but we really worked hard. We’ve got a really great team and we’ve had a lot of fun putting it together.”

Also winning silver was the Men’s Eight of Matt Aldridge, Fergus Woolnough, Gabriel Obholzer, Sam Nunn, David Bewicke-Copley, Harry Geffen, Miles Beeson, Archie Drummond and cox Tom Bryce. The crew stayed calm in the middle of the race after Germany had gone out fast, and stayed with the Netherlands and ahead of Romania to improve on their preliminary result.

“It was a step on since our heat, which was not quite up to the standard we’ve been doing in training,” Archie said. “The Dutch are setting the standard at the minute and we’re trying really hard to catch them. We’re not fully satisfied yet, but it’s a good step on.”

Bryce said the race had been “really exciting”, adding: “We did what we said we wanted to do. There’s certainly more work to do, but we’ll now be happier and very motivated going forwards.”

The Women’s Eight of Lizzie Witt, Jade Lindo, Lauren Irwin, Katherine George, Amelia Standing, Megan Slabbert, Heidi Long, Annie Campbell-Orde and cox Jack Tottem, picked up bronze in their A-Final behind Australia and the Netherlands. A race that had four crews in the mix right down the track.

“We had a couple of things to work on from the previous race, so we just went out and tried to commit to all of that,” Megan said. “It was just really tough competition, but we walked away with a medal so that’s really exciting and we’re looking forward to coming back stronger for the next one.”

Holly Youd, Sarah Marshall, Angharad Broughton and Eleanor Brinkhoff had a solid race in the Women’s Four A-Final. The first appearance at this level for all except Eleanor. The four were always in contention for the medals throughout the race, staying in touch with New Zealand in third place, and finishing less than 2 seconds off the podium in fourth.

“I think we’ve got more speed to come, just tightening a few of the screws, and it’s nice to now have a couple of weeks to work on those things,” Eleanor said.

Callum Dixon and Tobias Schröder were in a tough Men’s Double Sculls A-Final, with little to choose between the crews early on. In the second half of the race the pushes for the medals saw Callum and Tobias slip back a little, finishing sixth overall.

“It felt like a little bit of a step into the unknown in the final. Sometimes you step into a leap of faith and discover something new about yourself,” said Callum. “We’re happy with how we stepped through the first few rounds, the final for sure was a tough one, but still some good learning points.”

James Vogel and Matt Rowe sat in third place for the first half of the Men’s Pair B-Final, but put a big push in at 1500m in an attempt to catch the leaders. They closed the gap on Germany, but were just short of catching them and finished ninth overall.

“That was some of the most fun I’ve had racing in ages,” said Matt after the race. “It was six boats all hammering each other for 2000m, and that’s what it’s all about.

“We improved every day, and I learned more than I ever have at a regatta before. So if this is just the first race in a season where we’re trying to learn and improve, I thought we did an awesome job.”

Becky Wilde and Cam Nyland were in a tight race in the Women’s Double Sculls B-Final, with four crews in the middle of the pack. They exchanged third and fourth place with Romania 2 right down the track, finishing 0.21 seconds down on Romania in fourth, taking 10th place overall.

“That was much better again,” said Becky. “I think we’re really happy to end the regatta on that note, we’ve stepped on every time. It was a bit of a fight at the end, but really positive”

Ed Fuller, Paralympic champion in the PR3 4x+, made his debut in an Olympic boat category alongside Reading University Boat Club’s Matt Long, finishing sixth in the B Final to place 12th overall in the Men’s Double Sculls. Another hotly contested race, won by Portugal, saw all six crews overlap for much of the course and Ed and Matt finished just a couple of lengths back on the leaders.

“It’s been really enjoyable,” Ed said. “Coming into this we didn’t know what a good result would be, we were just aiming to put in a row that we would be happy with on each day. But to be on the right side of those really tight margins on Friday and get into the A/B semi-final, and guarantee a B-final at worst, was a really good job done by us.”

The B-finals ended with a win for the Men’s Quadruple Sculls crew of James Cartwright, Jamie Gare, Matt Haywood and Rory Harris, who picked up seventh overall and a World Rowing Cup point for Great Britain. Poland 2 had a strong start, but the British were in touch by 1000m and drew level inside the last 500m, claiming victory by 0.15 seconds in a thriller.

Rory said: “We’re a new crew, we’ve learned a lot this regatta. We were disappointed to miss out just yesterday, but we put what we did well in the heat and what we did well in the semi-final together, and I thought that was our best performance and it was great to come away with a win.

“It’s always difficult when you’re aiming for an A-final and you miss out on giving it your all in the B-final, but I’m really pleased that we did the job today.”

Interim Director of Performance Tom Dyson said:

“Five medals from 7 A-Finals is a strong place to build from for the season. The gold medal performances in the Men’s Four and Women’s single are a standout positive, and the Women’s Quad and both Eights each deserve credit for strongly challenging quality opposition at the front of their respective fields. There were new senior medallists across these 3 medal crews, a special moment in these rower’s career.

Alongside these performances I’d like to acknowledge and thank the full team of rowers, coaches and support staff. There is a strength that comes from everyone supporting each other whenever the team comes together to race.”