Queen’s Rowing has been on quite a hot streak during the summer.
From Aug. 1 to 8, the Kingston Rowing Club attended the 142nd Royal Canadian Henley Regatta, one of Canada’s most prestigious rowing championships, in St. Catherines. While the club was very successful at the Regatta, finishing fourth overall out of 131 clubs from Canada and the US, it was the rowers from Queen’s that stole the spotlight.
In total, Queen’s Rowing athletes finished with five gold medals after the event had concluded. Four out of the five golds were team events: the Senior Lightweight Men’s Four, Senior Women’s Four, Senior Lightweight Men’s Pair, and U23 Lightweight Men’s Double Scull. The lone solo gold medal was won by Nigel Radhakrishnan, Sci ’26, who won the U23 Lightweight Men’s Single Scull.
The gold medal for Radhakrishnan is yet another accolade in a very extraordinary summer for the rower. Earlier this summer, Radhakrishnan won gold in the U23 Openweight Single at both the US National Championships and Holland Beker Regatta in Amsterdam.
In an interview with The Journal, Radhakrishnan said it was “an unbelievable summer.”
“So many cool memories along the way, and it’s great to bring some hardware home of course,” he said.
Radhakrishnan emphasized his time in Amsterdam during the Holland Beker Regatta, and how important and significant it was to him. Along with meeting several current Dutch national rowers, he also met former gold medal Olympian Jan Wienese, who gave him tips and advice during his time there and for the rest of the summer.
“Holland Beker [Regatta] was just surreal. Absolutely the coolest experience of my life for sure. Absolutely amazing trip, and I wouldn’t change a thing about it,” Radhakrishnan said.
Adding on to the success, Queen’s Rowing also sent two of its players to represent Canada at the 2026 FISU World Rowing Championships in London, Ont., from Aug. 13 to 15. Julia Teixeira, Sci ’27, competed in the Women’s Double Sculls, while Kaija Erickson, Kin ’27, competed in the Women’s Eight for the host country.
“I was very excited. I honestly didn’t expect it,” Teixeira said in an interview with The Journal about being selected to compete. “I’m a very small lightweight, I wasn’t expecting to get selected because it was an openweight event, so I was just thrilled that they put my name in, and it made me feel a little bit better about the future of lightweight rowing and lightweights being able to participate in future events.”
While neither participant medaled in their respective race, Teixeira believes that the event helped her develop and gain more experience for future races.
“We knew going in that it was going to be a development [race]” Teixeira said. “We developed a lot. We did what were supposed to do. You learn from these types of experiences,” she said.
Both Teixeira and Radhakrishnan are optimistic about the upcoming season for their respective teams and Queen’s Rowing as a whole.
The Women’s Rowing Team will look to defend their three-time OUA Rowing Championship this season. While Teixeira won’t be rowing for the Gaels as she will be on an internship, she still believes that the team “can get OUA’s again,” despite the loss of herself and other key players.
The Men’s Rowing Team will look to improve on a third-place finish from this past seasons OUA Rowing Championships.
“This is definitely the best team that I’ve ever been a part of. We’ve definitely got lofty ambitions, we really want to be challenging for the OUA men’s banner this year,” Radhakrishnan said.
Queen’s Rowing will kick off its season at the Head of the Trent regatta at Trent University on Oct. 3. Other key events include the Brock Invitational at Brock University on Oct. 10, and the Head of the Charles Regatta in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from Oct. 16 to 18. The OUA championships are on Oct. 31 in St. Catherines.
Tags
Kingston Rowing Club, men's rowing, Rowing, Women’s Rowing
All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s) in Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to eic@queensjournal.ca.