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By Martin Cross
The only thing hotter than the pavement in Seville—it was over 100 degrees—was the form of Ollie Zeidler in the men’s single. Racing in the season’s first Rowing World Cup on the beautiful Guadalquivir River, the Paris Olympic singles champion destroyed the field. The 29-year-old German beat Yauheni Zalaty, silver medallist in Paris, by a whopping six and a half seconds.
In an understated comment on his return to full training Zeidler said, “So far it works out pretty well.”
And if Zeidler’s was the most emphatic victory, the women’s singles produced the closest finish and was the race of the day. First, a spoiler. The Olympic champion Karolien Florijn unfortunately fell in, just off the start of her opening heat and denied the event of an anticipated showdown with Fiona Murtagh, the Irish world champion.
But the contest actually turned out to be between two different scullers. Lauren Henry, who took the silver behind Murtagh in Shanghai and Viktorija Senkute. The Lithuanian, who competed for UCF in college, led the race from early on with a low rate of striking of 31. The Paris singles bronze medallist was clearly coming back to her best.
Britain’s Henry, who took gold in the quads in Paris, threw everything at the 30-year-old Lithuanian but seemingly couldn’t break through—until the final stroke. There, the 24-year-old hit the front and took gold by just over a tenth of a second.
But there was drama in the race for bronze. Murtagh, who’d blasted off, only just hung on to snatch bronze from Roos de Jong of The Netherlands.
“I know that if I’m within a sniff I can do it,” explained Henry afterwards.
The crew of the regatta was the British four. World champions yes. But their performance made it look as if they were in a different sport. They won by over five seconds. And in a way that will have coaches poring over the race video to capture their secrets.
Remarkably, the British four—three of whom won The Boat Race for Cambridge in 2025—were taught to row there by Rob Baker. He is now doing a part-time coaching role with The Netherlands and was coaching the Dutch four, who took bronze behind the British.
Baker is also coaching the Dutch men’s eight, who took gold here in an imperious manner ahead of their long-time rivals from Great Britain. The Netherlands’ high rating and fluid style trumped Britain’s solid 36 strokes per minute.
Germany and Australia had fantastic days. The former picking up wins in both men’s and women’s quads. And the Aussie women looked long and relaxed as they took the eight. Earlier, their women’s four, stroked by the powerhouse Georgie Rowe, just failed to hold off the Netherlands in another great race to kick off the international season.
