Rupert Guinness21 August 2026, 12:31:12 pm AEST7 min read

2026 World Rowing Championships Preview

By Rupert Guinness, Australian Rowing Teams Media Manager

The Rowsellas will go to the 2026 World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam aiming to convert progress into prime performance and results.

The World Rowing Championships from August 24-30 are the penultimate event of the international Classic Rowing season and will also provide Rowing Australia (RA) with a measure of how the Australian Rowing Team (ART) is tracking for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Based on results at other international regattas this season, including World Cup I Seville, World Cup III Lucerne and the Holland Beker Regatta in Amsterdam, optimism is also high the team can raise the bar at the World Rowing Championships on the Bosbaan course used in the Holland Beker Regatta across its Men’s, Women’s and Para rowing programs.

Aside from the commitment of RA’s athletes who have earned selection for Amsterdam, the Rowsellas’ campaign is also the outcome of months of planning and preparation, supported by a high-performance system that continues to benefit from the longstanding commitment of Hancock Prospecting and RA Patron Mrs Gina Rinehart AO.

RA Performance Director Paul Thompson MBE believes the World Rowing Championships will also provide a key status report of how RA’s LA 2028 preparations are faring and showcase the positive impact that the unwavering sponsorship and support from Mrs Rinehart and Hancock Prospecting, as well the significant investment from the Australian Sports Commission (ASC), Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and Australian Government has on Australian rowing.

“You always have to have an eye on where you need to get to, which is LA 2028,” Thompson said.

“These are significant in seeing if we’re progressing and really on track for where we need to be, and it’ll help form some of our thinking and strategy going forward.

“But at the World Championships, you always want to be amongst the medals. We’ve been very intentional and deliberate about our approach to that as well this year. We’re looking to see that we can really step up and be competitive across the field.

“We’ve got some good chances for medals in a number of boats, with a couple of other boats that could surprise. We’re really looking to make sure that we can make a step and blood new athletes into the top end of the final.

“Then, of course, next year is about qualification, and then there’s the delivery in LA.”

Thompson is confident all 13 Australian boats for the World Rowing Championships are capable of performances that will reflect the high level achieved while training in Italy on the waters of Lake Varese, in Gavirate where the team has been based at the European Training Centre (ETC).

“We’re looking for each boat to reach their potential speed,” Thompson said.

“We just want people to be performing at their best. We know we’ve got good athletes, good coaches, good performance support staff and have done good quality training. With those pieces in place the results will follow.”

Men’s Team

Thompson identified the Men’s Pair of Alexander Hill OAM OLY and Angus Dawson OLY that is coached by Chris O’Brien as one of Australia’s strongest prospects after their World Cup III victory in Lucerne.

The Australians will not take any opposing crew lightly, but expectations are of a titanic showdown against the New Zealand World Champion crew of Ben Taylor and Oli Welch.

Thompson described the potential clash as “enticing,” but cautions against viewing Men’s Pairs event as a contest only between Australia and New Zealand.

Australia has also continued developing its Men’s Eight that is coached by Nicolo Maurogiovanni and won Bronze in World Cup III while a new-look Men’s Four, under the coaching of Tom Laurich and Noel Donaldson, will provide another measure of the sweep program’s depth.

Thompson is also encouraged by the progress in sculling, where Australia will race a Men’s Quadruple Scull that is coached by Nick Mitchell and Men’s Double Scull, coached by Jamie Hewitt.

“We’ve been deliberate about that too,” Thompson said. “We want to build the sculling group, and that’s why we’ve gone for a Quad and a Double.”

The Men’s Quadruple Scull has undergone a late change, with Hamish Danks replacing Cormac Kennedy-Leverett who was withdrawn due to a back injury.

Thompson praised Kennedy-Leverett for how he handled the difficult decision to withdraw.

He described Kennedy-Leverett’s behaviour as “impeccable”, saying the change now presented Danks with an opportunity to come into the boat and “press on".

Women’s Team

There is growing optimism about the Women’s squad, particularly the Women’s Four that is coached by James Harris and Women’s Eight, coached by Ellen Randell, that have shone on the World Cup stage this year.

“The Women’s Four keeps punching through at the right level,” Thompson said of the crew that won Silvers at both World Cup I Seville and World Cup III Lucerne.

“They’ve been competitive in the medals, which is good, and they’re getting a lot more consistent.”

He believes the improvement of the Women’s Eight that won Gold at World Cup I and Silver at World Cup III to become the 2026 World Cup champions has been particularly significant.

“It’s a real testament to the women, program, coaches and support that they were able to really make a big shift in their level from one season to the next,” Thompson said.

Thompson is confident the Xavier Dorfman-coached Women’s Pair of Emmie Frederico and Katherine Easton should benefit from their consistency and continuity as a crew.

"We've got the Pair with Emmie and Katie, and they're strong," Thompson said.

"The bigger the boat, the more you have injuries and illnesses and people rolling through it, but Emmie and Katie have remained a strong combination.”

The Women’s sculling program has been strengthened by the return to the ART of Tara Rigney OLY in the Women’s Single Scull. Rigney, coached by Alfie Young, won Bronze at World Cup III. Rigney is returning from a year away and Thompson acknowledges “the more training Tara has done, the faster and better she rows.

“It's an excitingly deep field in the singles and Tara should match up well within it.”

Thompson is equally as enthused by the strength that Annabelle McIntyre OAM OLY brings to the sculling program. McIntyre raced the Single Scull in World Cup III (placing 8^th) but is now in the Women’s Quadruple Scull coached by Jamie McDonald.

Thompson is particularly pleased to see McIntyre, a 2021 Tokyo Gold Medallist in the Four and 2024 Paris Bronze Medallist in the Pair, racing after recovering from long term injuries during an interrupted post-Paris 2024 break. Her experience, alongside that of Jean Mitchell OLY who raced in the Four at 2024 Paris, has also bolstered a new-look Women’s Quadruple Scull.

“We had a Quad at World Cup III in Lucerne that was just below the selection standard, and we know it’s been strengthened and is faster with Jean and Annabelle in it,” Thompson said.

“They brought their experience and their power to the boat to step it on.”

Para Rowing Team

Australia’s Para rowers will arrive in Amsterdam off the back of an encouraging World Cup III in which every Australian Para boat medalled.

In the PR1 Men’s Single Scull, Erik Horrie OAM PLY will extend his record of national representations to 16 years in Amsterdam. Horrie, coached by Chris Holliday, remains a proven international performer, as his Silver Medal at World Cup III has shown.

Thompson believes the confidence and maturity developed by Sam Stunell and Susannah Lutze through their success at the 2026 World Rowing Under 23 Championships in Duisburg, Germany has now reached a senior level.

Stunell, who won the Gold Medal in the PR3 Men’s Single Sculls at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships to go with his 2025 Gold in the same event, will race in the Christine MacLaren-coached PR3 Mixed Double Scull at Amsterdam alongside Ella Marshall with whom he won Bronze in the boat at World Cup III Lucerne.

Lutze, who won Gold in the PR3 Women’s Single Sculls at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships, will now compete at Amsterdam in the PR3 Mixed Coxed Four that, under the coaching of Caroline Pijpers and James Loveday, won a promising Bronze at World Cup III, in a boat that represents an important longer-term project for RA on the road to LA 2028.

Across the ART, Thompson believes another development has been the growing sense of one team rather than separate Men’s, Women’s and Para programs.

“It has been deliberate around the people processes that we’ve put in,” Thompson said.

Amsterdam will reveal how far that collective progress has taken the Rowsellas — and furthermore, how much further the team needs to go before LA 2028.