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 Eights🥇05:33.30
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
Race Report: As yet an untested crew, blustery conditions and a nervy start meant an unpredictable result in the time trial for the Cambridge men. Thankfully, just moments before boating, the crew found they made it into the A final after a 5th place finish in the time trial. Buoyed by a memory of strong starts for many of the returning Goldie crew, off the start they encountered a different kind of buoy. As they untangled, they found themselves half a length down on the field. The nerves started to show as they trialled the pace through the first half before the call came down from Brett Taylor in 3 to relax at the 1k. Suddenly the crew began to walk back up to the field as they started to go through the gears. Cambridge poked through their opposition in the Academic category, Oxford Brookes, in the far lane then both Thames and Leander B. The hurt came in heavy in the last few hundred metres. After the punishing early sprint, the crew was not quite able hang on to Thames and Leander, but narrowly held out for the win over Brookes to take home the George Hallowes Memorial Cup.
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
Race Report: The Cambridge Women’s Blue Boat took to the water in Dorney to race at Metropolitan Regatta on Saturday morning. After an incredible warm up, they put down a solid time trial that placed the crew in fifth position going into the A final, out of 64 women’s eights. Facing some very tough competition with many familiar faces across the field, Cambridge shot off the start, coming into the 500m mark in 3rd place. They found a solid rhythm but weren’t quite able to maintain our speed for the full race, crossing the line in 5th place. The side by side racing was a great learning experience and a big step on from BUCS, with the crew beginning to learn how different a 2km race is to the Boat Race! The crew are now excited to see how much more speed they can find in the coming weeks.
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.