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Great Britain wins the Women’s Windermere Cup

In the 40th running of the Windermere Cup, the British women won the invitational event for a third time in Seattle

Great Britain’s women struck gold in the Windermere Cup, beating the University of Washington and the Canadian National Team.

Following victory in Friday night’s Twilight Sprints, the British women backed up that performance and won the Windermere Cup for a third time. This adds to the victories of 1998 and 2022. No team, other than the University of Washington, has won the women’s event more times.

The combination. featured six from the Eight that won bronze in Shanghai: Jack Tottem, Megan Slabbert, Lauren Irwin, Amelia Standing, and Heidi Long.

They were joined by Olympic bronze medallist Annie Campbell-Orde, as well as Lizzie Witt and Jade Lindo in the bows, the first to cross the finish line in the iconic Montlake Cut.

“It’s been an amazing week out here in Seattle,” said Olympic bronze medallist Lauren Irwin.

“A huge thank you to the University of Washington for inviting us again. We’ve had the best time, and we hope to be back!”

Women’s Olympic Head Coach Andrew Randell added, “What a fantastic opportunity to be out here and execute some of our plan. We probably got three-quarters of it right today, and there’s plenty to work on for the future, but we always take a win when you can, so well done to the girls.”

The Men’s race was one of the closest in 40 years of Windermere Cup. Following an early lead for the Washington Huskies, the British men fought their way back into contention, setting the scene for an epic finale. After a photo finish, victory went to the home team by just 0.16s.

Credit: Scott Eklund/Redbox Pictures

Washington’s crew featured several British athletes, including cox Nikita Jacobs, who steered Great Britain’s Women’s Eight to victory at the 2025 U23 World Rowing Championships. He was joined by Cameron Tasker in the two-seat, part of last year’s Eight that won gold in Poznan, as well as  Sam Ford at five, part of the Molesey Boat Club boat that won the Thames Challenge Cup in 2022.

“We knew Washington was sharp, that they’d go off hard and be formidable opposition,” said High Performance Coach Steve Trapmore.

“We set off to try and contend with that, but they had a really good first 500m of the race, which we were able to counter, but we’d lost too much ground in the early stages. The guys did an incredible job to rally and pull the deficit back in the second half of the race to unfortunately miss the win by a photo finish of 0.16s.

“It’s frustrating, but we’ve learned a lot from the experience. The training has been really good, and it’s been well worth coming. A huge thank you to everyone for making this happen, and the British teams have worked very well together here. It’s felt very collaborative, and it’s great to be a part of the staff team here who have been operating together really well.

“It’s been a tough early-season race. However, that’s why we came here, to put ourselves under pressure and test ourselves to see where we are after a couple of weeks in this Eight. We’ve shown some really positive attributes, but also come away with some really clear points to work on ahead of racing at the World Rowing Cup I in Seville.”

Results

Women’s Windermere Cup
Great Britain (6:10.021)
University of Washington (6:13.543)
Canada (6:15.278)

Men’s Windermere Cup
University of Washington (5:29.082)
Great Britain (5:29.247)
Northeastern University (5:35.914)

The GB Rowing Team at the 40th Windermere Cup

Women’s Eight
Lizzie Witt (Leander Club / Imperial College BC)
Jade Lindo (Molesey BC / Twickenham RC)
Lauren Irwin (Leander Club / Durham University / Chester-le-Street ARC)
Katherine George (Leander Club)
Amelia Standing (Oxford University BC)
Megan Slabbert (Molesey BC)
Heidi Long (Oxford University BC / Leander Club)
Annie Campbell-Orde (Marlow RC/Leander Club)
Jack Tottem (cox) (Leander Club / Oxford University BC)
Coach: Andrew Randell

Reserves: Angharad Broughton and Eleanor Brinkhoff

Men’s Eight
Matt Aldridge (Christchurch RC/Oxford Brookes University BC)
Archie Drummond (Leander Club)
David Bewicke-Copley (Oxford Brookes University BC)
Fergus Woolnough (Oxford Brookes University BC)
Gabriel Obholzer (Cambridge University BC)
Sam Nunn (Oxford Brookes University BC)
Miles Beeson (Leander Club)
Harry Geffen (Oxford University BC)
Tom Bryce (cox) (Oxford Brookes University BC)
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Reserves: Matt Rowe and James Vogel

Support Staff
Jo Bates – Team Manager
Stephen Greenan – Physio