women’s senior rowing

We have three senior women’s boats that row with us throughout the year, participating in many events both on and off the Cam, training up to the highly anticipated Lent and May Bumps – the biggest college races on the Cam. Our rowers range from complete beginners who first picked up an oar with us as novices to experienced athletes coming back from rowing with the university crews (CUBC) in the summer.

The women’s side consistently perform as one of the top college clubs with W1 securing 2nd place in the 2025 Lent Bumps - their highest finish since the 1993 headship. This year the entire squad have continued to build on this momentum as W2 held their position at the top of Division 3 against several surrounding first boats. In the May Bumps, W1 have consistently established themselves firmly among the top crews, maintaining their position of 6th from 2025, and W2 and W3 continually stand out as some of the leading second and third boats on the river. In other Cam races, we have performed strongly with both W1 and W2 consistently being within the strongest boats on the river, with our W1 IV+ claiming a divisional win at the 2025 Winter Head and reaching the semi finals of the Uni IVs competition in Michaelmas.

In addition, beyond the Cam, the women’s side have consistently excelled at Nottingham City Regatta, winning their final in 2022, 2023, and 2024 and 2026. For the first time in over a decade this year, we also sent our first women’s IV+ to Metropolitan Regatta where they secured 5th position, and sent an VIII+ to WeHORR where we placed 149th of 304 crews, including internationally competitive crews.

Message from the Captains

Hi, we are Emilia and Katy, co-Captains of the women’s squad at LMBC! Here at Maggie, we are a vibrant, fun and competitive rowing club that fosters a strong sense of belonging and Cam-araderie!

Emilia is a psychological and behaviour sciences (PBS) student and Katy is a medical student. We both noviced at Maggie in 2025 and 2024 respectively where we fell in love with the people, sport and club. We are very excited to be looking after the women’s side this year as we reopen our newly refurbished boathouse to experienced rowers and novices alike. From the clashing of blades at bumps to the clinking of glasses at boat club dinners, we would love to welcome you to our rowing family! 

Please see below for more details about women’s rowing at Maggie but if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out: Emilia (ep785@cam.ac.uk) and Katy (krs61@cam.ac.uk).

Training

We have three senior VIIIs, with students from all years at John’s. Most of our rowers learn to row with us as novices and train their way up to the first boat over their years with Maggie, but we also take on rowers with experience to our senior crews, and we have several triallists who return from CUBC in the Easter term to row with us in May Bumps.

All our crews train over a variety of sessions, with outings on the water as well as land training – involving weights, circuits, and ergo sessions. The first boat trains for an average of 8 sessions a week, the second boat for 6/7 sessions, and the third boat for 4/5 sessions. While the water outings are confined to the specific crew, we do our land training all together, helping create a supportive, friendly, and fun environment for us all.

2026 Results

➢ 5th in Lent Bumps

➢ 6th in May Bumps

➢ Spring Head-to-Head (4th)

➢Pembroke Regatta (Lost in Final)

➢ Nottingham City Regatta (1st in Final, 3rd in Division)

➢ Metropolitan Regatta (5th)

➢ WeHORR (149th)

The Coaching Team

We are incredibly lucky on the women’s side to have an excellent coaching team to lead us to success. Our head coach, Pere Gisbert, rowed for the Spanish national team for seven years, then worked as Head Coach for the Catalan high performance team and coached the Spanish national junior team. Notably, he has also coached our men’s side to double headship and is now in place to bring us the same success.

In addition, we have Anna Odorici, a Lady Margaret Alumna who rowed with Maggie in 2016 where she worked her way up to W1 having noviced at Maggie. This places her in the perfect position to coach boats of all levels, as well as helping us with our novice rowers. Last year, she took on the role of our W2 coach where she helped them to remain near the top of division 3 in the May Bumps despite some very strong competition.

To complete the team, Lance Badman coaches our lower boats. Lance has been at Lady Margaret for over 20 years as our boatman and women’s coach and his knowledge and experience are invaluable to our learning as rowers, particularly those who are newer to rowing, as found in our lower boats, who make vast improvements under Lance’s tutelage.