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Championship records fall at British Rowing Club Championships 2025

14 Championship records and a further 19 Club and Beginner times have tumbled

Monday’s racing at the British Rowing Club Championships provided some of the fastest times ever at a Championships. 10 Junior records were broken, as well as the Open and Junior Women’s AR3 Single Scull previous best times to go with the Mixed Championship Eight record that Thames RC beat on Saturday.

The J14s and J15s were busy obliterating record times across the 1000m racing on Monday. Both the Open and Women’s J14 Coxed Quads saw new best times set as Hereford RC and Walbrook RC raised the bar and set the new standard in their respective finals.

 

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It was across the Single Sculls that some of the largest improvements were made in the record times. Dana Simpson of Chester le Street ARC broke the old record by 22 seconds on her way to victory in the Women’s J14 title, while George Byrnes of Exeter RC obliterated the Open record. He broke the fastest time ever in his semi-final, and then came the A Final, where he smashed that time from earlier in the day by a further 24 seconds.

“It was always hope, but never something that I expected would be quite that easy, but I’m really happy with that,” explained George.

“I’ve been rowing since I was 12, and my dad is the one who got me into it; he’s had me on the erg since I was about seven!”

Both of the J15 Single Scull records were smashed as well. Hugh Hall-Craggs from Tideway Scullers and Madeleine Banfield of City of Bristol RC stepped up and put together some phenomenal performances.

After one of the closest finals of the day, Madeleine was in disbelief as she crossed the finish line after pushing her bow ball ahead in the final 100m. “I saw 250m left and couldn’t even tell where I was, but I just kept going and gave it all I had,” said the newly crowned British Champion.

“I didn’t even know I’d won. I wasn’t looking. I was just focusing on getting all the strokes I could get in. I only knew I’d won from all the screaming on the side at the end.”

Hugh is the second of the Hall-Craggs to join the record books at the British Championships. His father, Wade, set the record time for Open Double Sculls back in 1997, having previously represented Great Britain in the Single Scull at the 1992 Olympic Games.

The J15s didn’t stop breaking records at the Single Sculls; they went to work in the Doubles too. Avon County RC and Aberdeen Schools’ Rowing Association have now set the times that are the ones to beat after both of the times were previously broken in the morning’s semi-finals.

There was also a flurry of fresh records across the adaptive entries. Rohan Ladva, Amalia Sangiovanni Vincentelli, and James King have all added their names to the history books after breaking records in the Open and Women’s Junior AR-O Single Sculls and Open AR3 Single Scull, respectively.

Speaking after defending their Mixed Eight title and beating last year’s time, Thames RC’s George Nelson was delighted with their performance.

“We’ve raced the mixed eight both years it has run at Brit Champs now. It’s been a really fun way to end our season, bringing the men’s and women’s squad together to celebrate the strength of the Thames squad as a whole,” said the British Champion.

“Last year, we identified that we’d really like to try and go sub 6 in a mixed eight. Sadly, we’ve not yet had the conditions to make that possible, but we went 14 seconds quicker this year, so we’re headed in the right direction!

“The Championships has a great atmosphere; the racing is fun and I’m sure we’ll be back again next year to defend the title.”

Watch the races back on Champs Live!