Highlights from the 2025 Rowing BC Provincial Championships Regatta

Rowing BC hosted the 2025 BC Provincial Championships Regatta at Burnaby Lake over the weekend of July 11-13, 2025. The event featured 298 entries and 361 athletes representing 23 clubs, all competing under sunny skies and ideal flatwater conditions. The regatta showcased a high standard of racing throughout the weekend.

Racing was divided across three days. The first two days focused on small boat racing in 1x’s, 2-’s and 2x’s for Men and Women. The racing began with a Time Trial on Friday afternoon, followed by side by side racing in the semi-finals and finals on Saturday. Sunday focused entirely on heats and finals for the big boats (4x, 4-, 8+). In this regatta format, all boats race “open” but are awarded by their division categories. This creates tight racing in all finals, regardless of age categories. This year’s regatta included the following entry types:

• U17 Men’s and Women’s 1x, 2x, 4x
• U19 Men’s and Women’s 1x, 2x, 2-, 4x 
• Open (Senior) Men’s and Women’s 1x, 2x, LWT 2x, 2-, 4x, 4-, 8+
• Para Men’s and Women’s PR1 1x, PR2 1x, PR3 1x, PR3 2x, PR3 2-
• *NEW* Mixed 8+

First place finishers in each division were awarded Rowing BC Provincial Championships Gold Medals, in addition to swag prizes from race category supporters.

Hudson Boatworks supported the Men’s and Women’s 1xs. Of the 57 Men’s 1x entries, Oleksii (Alex) Lupan from the Kelowna Rowing Club took the A final in a time of 7:38 to become the Open BC Champion. Jack Harris who finished 6th in the A Final was crowned U19 BC Champion. Oleksii and Jack will both race again later this Summer – Oleksii in the 1x at the Canada Cup for Team BC, and Jack in the 1x at the Junior World Championships for Canada hosted in Lithuania. 2nd place finisher in the C Final was Max Johns for Victoria City Rowing Club earning the U17 BC Championship Title. In the Para 1x Final, Riley Brinnen from the Vernon Rowing and Dragon Boat Club came away as the BC Champion in the PR3 1x.

The Women’s Racing in the small boats was dominated in the open categories by the University of British Columbia. In the Hudson Boatworks Women’s 1x, Gabby Yarema from UBC was the Open BC Champion, followed by U19 Champion and 2nd overall Victoria City Rowing Club’s Lucy Hallett. In the same A final, Oakland Strokes athlete Harper Wood-Soloff finished 6th overall and was crowned U17 BC Champion. The Women’s 2-, sponsored by Outway Socks, was won by UBC’s Nicole Cusack and Lyndsey Bryden in a time of 8:08 who bested 3rd place overall finishers and U19 BC Champions Willow Tzonez and Rowan Thompson from Victoria City Rowing Club just 8 seconds back.

The Men’s side in the Outway Socks 2- event saw University of Victoria athletes Quinn McCoy and Simon Whittaker winning the A final over U19 Champions Lucas Riddle and Ashton Kidd from Thunder Rowing. This crew will be representing Canada at the World Junior Championships in Lithuania this August and will be coached by Marc Addison from Vancouver College.

The doubles racing, also supported by Outway Socks, was very exciting. On the Men’s side, the Open BC Champions were UBC’s Peter Scaccabarrozzie and Henry Sowell, who also became the LWT Champions in this event. Third place overall and U19 BC Champions went to Victoria City Rowing Club’s Oscar Joyeaux-Humphies and Billy Thornton. These athletes will also represent BC at the Canada Cup Event in London, Ontario this August. The U17 Champion title went to the Maple Bay Rowing Club athletes Hunter Nickerson and Nathan Irvine, who had a tight race finishing just ahead of Vernon in 3rd place in the B Final. On the Women’s side it was close racing with University of Victoria crew of Kate Watson and Charisse (Sai Sai) Faubert taking the Open title over 3rd place overall finishers Aida Mills and Sierra Munroe from the Vernon Rowing and Dragon Boat Club who won the U19 event. The U17 winners were from Oakland Stokes, represented by Harper Wood-Soloff and Bailee Myers who were 2nd place in the C Final. 

Saturday’s racing finished up with a fun seven boat final in the first ever BC Championship Mixed 8+ race. It was the outstanding crew for the University of British Columbia coming away with the win over crews from UVIC, Oakland Strokes, Vernon, Maple Bay, Fort Langley Youth Rowing Society and Simon Fraser University. The UBC Crew was Cusack, Yarema, Alkouatli, Borritt, Pearce, Herrera, Bonamin, Bryden, coxed by Isabelle Howley who received the traditional coxswain toss after the win. 

On Sunday morning, athletes shifted focus to racing their big boats. In the 4x, supported by J&J Embroidery Plus, Open BC Champs UBC raced away at the front of the field. This crew was represented by Peter Scaccabarozzi, Henry Sowell, Tomoki McMartin and Kieran Fitzpatrick. U19 Champions and 2nd place overall went to Oakland Strokes with U17 Champions from the Victoria City Rowing Club finishing 5th in the A Final. This crew was represented by Ben Wood, Max Johns, Christo Farrah and bowed by Oliver Paul.

On the Women’s Side the 4 x titles were as follows:

• Open – BC Champions – UBC – Veerentveld, Rain-Shaw, Pepin and Posynick
• U19 –  BC Champions – Vancouver Rowing Club – Jobling, Beurts, Bystrom, Brett
• U17 – BC Champions – Vancouver Rowing Club – Radke, Clarke, Malak, Lui

In the 4-s, also supported by J&J Embroidery Plus, there was a straight final in the Women’s event, where BC Championship Medals were awarded to UBC’s Bonamin, Yarema, Cucack and Bryden. The Men’s 4- was another interesting race featuring Rowing Canada’s Junior 4- using the BC Champs event as a tune up for the World Championships in Lithuania. This crew, racing as Thunder Rowing, included Will Hawkins, Partick Boyle, Griffith Coupland and Ben Maijer. The boys, coached by Vancouver College’s Marc Addison, had a great race finishing closely to a dominant Aalbert Van Schothorst-coached  UVIC crew of Quinn McCoy, Simon Whittaker, Gabe Dyer and Connor Dillon who were crowned BC Champions in the 4-.

The final races of the regatta were the Men’s and Women’s 8+, supported by the Canadian Sport Institute – Pacific. The dock and viewing platform were packed with cheering spectators as UVIC crossed the finish line as the BC Champions in the Men’s 8+ and UBC as the BC Champions in the Women’s 8+.

All of the BC Champions were entered in a prize draw for gift certificates from event sponsors Hilton Vancouver Metrotown and Best Western Plus Burnaby adding some extra excitement to the end of the race day.

Thank you to all of the Local Organizing Committee, Umpires, and Volunteers who made this regatta a success. Thank you also to the sponsors and supporters who helped to make this event possible.

See you at the 2026 Rowing BC Provincial Championships next July!