Weekend Wrap: 2025 RowOn Championships Headlines Weekend
Rowing Clubs from across Ontario flocked to Welland, ON over the weekend for the 2025 RowOn Championships. The 656 entries for the two-day event marked the most entries at a RowOn Championships since 2017.
A total of 28 clubs participated in the provincial championship regatta, which included 22 from Ontario, five from the US and one from Colombia. Building off the formatting changes first implemented at last year’s RowOn Championships, all categories followed a time trial to seeded finals format on both days of competition. Athletes were placed into finals based on a collective ranking of all trial results for their event, regardless of age or weight category, to provide an opportunity for rowers to race others of similar speed, resulting in many competitive and exciting final races on Saturday and Sunday afternoon. New this year to the RowOn Champs was the Novice 1x Festival, which provided younger and less-experienced athletes an opportunity to participate in meaningful race opportunities. (See here for a recap of the RowOn Novice Festival)
Leading the way in the medal tally was the St. Catharines Rowing Club, who earned an impressive 38 medals over the two days of action. The SCRC also claimed the most gold medals with 20, to go along with 11 silver medals and seven bronze. Next on the medal tally was the Ottawa Rowing Club with 21 (6 gold, 6 silver, 9 bronze), followed by the Argonaut Rowing Club with 19 (6 gold, 7 silver, 6 bronze), and the Kingston Rowing Club with 17 (5 gold, 6 silver, 6 bronze). Also reaching double digits in medals won were Ridley College (5 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze) and Western University (2 gold, 7 silver, 1 bronze) with ten apiece.
Of the 28 participating clubs, 21 brought home medals, including 19 from Ontario. Other Ontario clubs earning medals included the Peterborough Rowing Club (8), Notre Dame Rowing Club (7), Don Rowing Club (6), Leander Boat Club (6), South Niagara Rowing Club (5), Hanlan Boat Club (5), Guelph Rowing Club (4), Niagara Rowing School (3), London Western Rowing Club (2), Niagara Falls Rowing Club (2), Orillia Rowing Club (2), Ridley Graduate Boat Club (1), and Island Lake Rowing Club (1).
The regatta ran under hot July temperatures on both days with sunny skies throughout the whole day on Saturday. The start of the regatta was delayed an hour on Sunday morning due to lightning in the forecast. Once the regatta resumed the light rain gave way and the rowers competed under a mix and sun and cloud for the rest of event. Row Ontario will head back to the beach for their next regatta as the RowOn Beach Sprint Cup #2 will take place from Lakeside Park in St. Catharines on Saturday, Aug. 23.
Elsewhere in the Canadian rowing world over the weekend, the RCA National Beach Sprint Selection Trials took place at Risser’s Beach in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia. Co-hosted by RCA and Row Nova Scotia, the regatta served as a selection event for the 2025 World Rowing Beach Sprint Championships which will take place Nov. 6-9 in Antalya, Turkey.
The categories contested at the two-day event included men’s and women’s open and U19 solo, and the mixed junior open and junior double. Participating Ontario clubs were Don Rowing Club, Hanlan Boat Club, Kingston Rowing Club, Leander Boat Club, Orillia Rowing Club, Ridley Graduate Boat Club and Sudbury Rowing Club.
In the open men’s solo, Emerson Crick (Halifax Rowing Club) topped beach sprint veteran Aubrey Oldham (Leander Boat Club) in the final by five seconds to claim the gold medal. The open women’s solo saw Sarah Pidgen (Don Rowing Club) continue her success in the beach sprint discipline as she topped two-time Olympian Carling Zeeman (Sudbury Rowing Club) in the final by just .04 seconds in the tightest final of the day. Elene Brett-Evans (Hanlan Boat Club) claimed the bronze medal by defeating Lucy MacLeod (North Star Rowing Club) in the B Final. The junior solo events were won by two Ontario rowers as Oliver Brennan (Kingston Rowing Club) and Autumn Prior (Orillia Rowing Club) each claimed the gold medal in the junior men’s and junior women’s solos respectively.
In doubles action, Pidgen and Oldham teamed up to defeat MacLeod and Crick in the A Final to claim the gold, while Prior and Brennan narrowly defeated Ben Cooke and Esmee LeBlanc (North Star Rowing Club) in the A Final by just 1.2 seconds. Overall, Ontario rowers earned nine of the 13 available medals.
For full results from the RowOn Championships, visit RegattaCentral
For full results from the RCA National Beach Sprint Trials, visit Regatta Central
