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 bottom of Division 2 against several surrounding first boats and W3 earned a place on the river for the first time since 2022. In the May Bumps, W1 have consistently established themselves firmly among the top crews, 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 claiming divisional wins at the 2025 X-Press Head, and our W1 IV+ setting a new course record at the 2025 Spring Head-to-Head. In addition, beyond the Cam, the women’s side have consistently excelled at Nottingham City Regatta, winning their event in 2022, 2023, and 2024 and taking second place in 2025.

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.

For more detail about our facilities, socials, training camp and club culture click the link below…

2025 Results

➢ 2nd in Lent Bumps

➢ 6th in May Bumps

➢ X-Press Head (W1 & W2 Divison Winners)

➢ Spring Head-to-Head (Course Record)

➢ Nottingham City Regatta (Runners Up)

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 Karen Wiemer, a Lady Margaret Alumna who rowed Maggie to headship in 1991 and rowed in the CUBC blue boat for three boat races. Karen has coached at Maggie for several years, using her experience and expertise to take us from 16th position to the top 3 in the bumps races. To complete the team, Lance Badman coaches our lower boats. Lance has been at Lady Margaret for 18 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.