Rowing NZ name squad for world champs
- Dave Worsley
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
Rowing New Zealand has announced its 18-strong squad to compete at the World Championships in Shanghai, China late next month.
The squad features the return of former lightweight sculler Matthew Dunham, who has been selected to row in the heavyweight Men’s Coxless Four after a late invitation to attend trials at Lake Karāpiro last weekend.
Incumbent Josh Vodanovich had to make himself unavailable at the last minute due to illness, leaving the remaining members of the crew—Flynn Watson, Campbell Crouch, and Zack Rumble—unable to get on the water and facing the prospect of being unable to go overseas.
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“They didn't have enough people, so that was the problem,” says Dunham, who last rowed at the World Championships in 2023 in the Lightweight Double Sculls. “Pretty random outcome, I wasn’t expecting it.
“The guys asked me to go for a row with them [last Friday after Vodanovich withdrew]. They liked it, so talked to Judith Hamilton (GM Performance) and the selectors and about 6pm Saturday, I was asked to join trials and do a 2K erg test on Monday morning.” A week of tough time trials followed, sure enough, we were lucky to get through it and get the boat over the line to be able to go to world champs.”
It’s a return to top-level rowing for Dunham, who missed qualification for the Paris Olympics in the Lightweight Double Sculls by just 0.17 seconds after finishing third in the B Final at the 2023 World Championships.
He then had the disappointment of not getting the opportunity to race at the Final Olympic Qualifying regatta at Lucerne in May 2024.
New Zealand will boat crews in the Mixed Eight and Mixed Double Sculls, which are debuting at these World Championships. It’s intended that those events will be on the programme at the Brisbane Olympics in 2032.
It means that for the first time, most of the squad will row two events at a World Championships.
Kathryn Glen, who has been selected in the Women’s Quadruple Sculls, will team up with Ben Mason in the Mixed Double.
The Mixed Eight is comprised of Men’s Pair Ben Taylor and Oliver Welch, Watson, Crouch and the Women’s Four of Alana Sherman, Isla Blake, Rebecca Leigh and Juliette Lequeux. The coxswain is 2023 New Zealand Under-23 representative Harry Molloy.
Blake, who will be competing at her first senior World Championships, says the prospect of racing the eight has the whole squad buzzing.
“I'm excited to see what happens,” says Blake. “We've actually recently had a couple of rows with a couple of the guys in the [women’s] four, just when people have had to have sessions off or whatnot. “You learn a lot from rowing with men in the boat, and I think they also come out of it feeling like they've learned something. I think it'll be cool.”
Finn Hamill will join Mason in the Men’s Double Sculls after a breakout season at home and overseas.
Hamill, another former lightweight sculler, won the Men’s Premier Single Sculls at the National Championships in February. He and Mason won bronze and silver medals at successive World Cup regattas in Europe before Hamill astounded worldwide audiences with his performance at the Henley Royal Regatta in July.
He beat Olympic bronze medallist Simon van Dorp (Netherlands) in his quarter-final of the Diamond Challenge Sculls, then Olympic champion Oliver Zeidler from Germany in the semifinal, before finishing runner-up in the final against the Netherlands’ Melvin Twellaar.
New Zealand Rowing Team to compete at the 2025 World Rowing Championships, Shanghai, China 21-28 September
Men’s Single Scull
Logan Ullrich, Waikato Rowing Club
Mike Rodger, Coach
Men’s Double Scull
Ben Mason, Avon Rowing Club
Finn Hamill, Waikato Rowing Club
Gary Roberts, Coach
Men’s Coxless Pair
Ben Taylor, Avon Rowing Club
Oliver Welch, Avon Rowing Club
Mike Rodger, Coach
Women’s Coxless Four
Alana Sherman, Waikato Rowing Club
Isla Blake, Waikato Rowing Club
Rebecca Leigh, Cambridge Rowing Club
Juliette Lequeux, Otago University Rowing Club
Tom Stannard, Coach
Women’s Quad
Kathryn Glen, Avon Rowing Club
Stella Clayton-Greene, Hauraki-Plains Rowing Club
Ella Cossill, Waikato Rowing Club
Veronica Wall, Ashburton Rowing Club
James Coote, Coach
Men’s Coxless Four
Flynn Watson, Avon Rowing Club
Zack Rumble, Avon Rowing Club
Campbell Crouch, Waikato Rowing Club
Matthew Dunham, Cambridge Rowing Club
Mike Rodger, Coach
Mixed Double
Ben Mason, Avon Rowing Club
Kathryn Glen, Avon Rowing Club
Gary Roberts & James Coote, Coaches
Mixed Eight
Alana Sherman, Waikato Rowing Club
Isla Blake, Waikato Rowing Club
Rebecca Leigh, Cambridge Rowing Club
Juliette Lequeux, Otago University Rowing Club
Ben Taylor, Avon Rowing Club
Oliver Welch, Avon Rowing Club
Flynn Watson, Avon Rowing Club
Campbell Crouch, Waikato Rowing Club
Harry Molloy, Cox, North Shore Rowing Club, Thames Rowing Club
Tom Stannard, Coach
