Milestone for LORC with two crews at WEHoRR 2025

London Otters RC hit an exciting milestone on International Women’s Day this weekend as for the first time two crews participated in the world’s largest women’s rowing race in the world.

WEHoRR, Women’s Eights Head of the River Race, takes place annually with around 2880 women in up to 320 crews racing the 6.8 km Championship Course in West London. The race has been cancelled or had reduced entries for many of the last six years due to Covid and river conditions. The club had a crew ready to race in 2019, but it wasn’t until 2022 that they could first compete.

Being able to field a second women’s crew represents a huge increase in the depth of the squad, after sustained efforts to train and recruit women and other eligible rowers over the last few years.

London Otters RC was founded in 2014 with just a handful of people as a way to help LGBTQ+ people get into and enjoy rowing as part of an inclusive and welcoming environment. In its first few years the club’s membership was predominantly gay men, but through a sustained whole-club effort the Otters have made major strides in their diversity, training and recruiting more women and non-binary rowers as well as making sure that the women’s crews are catered for in terms of boats and equipment.

The two crews racing today at the Women’s Eights Head of the River Race (WEHoRR) includes rowers with previous experience from around the UK and internationally, as well as rowers who learned on the club’s successful ‘Otterpups’ Learn to Row course and have progressed through the ranks.

They have trained through a cold and challenging season, racing on the club’s home waters in East London as well as at other races on the West London Tideway, to reach this culmination of the season’s competitions. This is only the second year that the club has been able to race, after years of race cancellations or river conditions reducing the size of the event. The Otters’ first WEHoRR was in 2022 and some of that crew were racing again today. In beautiful sunshine both crews put in a fine performance and earned their post-race celebrations.

Now that this race is finished, eyes turn to the summer season where the top women are eyeing up qualification at Henley Women’s Regatta, and of course a return to the Tideway this time next year – hopefully with a third crew for 2026!

Emma Gant, racing today in the club’s ‘A’ boat, said: “This is the second time we’ve completed WEHoRR as a club. I’m lucky enough to have been part of both these crews. Other years we’ve been foiled by the weather and before 2019 we simply didn’t have enough women (who wanted to compete) to make up a boat.

“That’s what makes this so special, we have not one but two boats as a club – but it also makes me immensely proud to have a crew of dedicated, hard-working, incredible women and non-binary people in our ever-growing squad. We’re a relatively new club in terms of rowing, and we’re still majority cis men. Racing WEHoRR is a way for us to say ‘we’re the Otters, we’re here, we’re proud.’ It means an immense amount to line up with my crew in the bronze and navy blue.”

Kate Nicholson-Russell, a former squad captain, said: “It's been amazing to watch the club grow from not having enough female members to enter WEHoRR to having two full crews compete. It's also so fulfilling to row alongside those whose priorities are solidarity and allyship, such as our captains and equipment officers, who committed to sourcing and purchasing equipment to suit smaller body types when the Otters previously only had equipment to accommodate cis men.

“These efforts have made LORC more competitive in women's rowing and have set us up for real, tangible growth. It's easy to talk the talk, but knowing our leadership has our backs shows that the Otters can also walk the walk and be a community where women can thrive.”

Thanks to London RC for hosting us, to Globe RC for sharing space on their trailer, and to the organisers of WEHoRR for running a fantastic day.