Photo Credit: World Rowing / Benedict Tufnell
LW1X
11 entries
This event has been dominated this season by Great Britain’s Imogen Grant. However, for the Europeans, Grant re-joins her Olympic doubles partner, Emily Craig, to race the LW2X. so instead it is Maddie Arlett who will race the LW1X. Areltt raced the double at both the first and third world Cups winning gold on both occasions. She raced the LW1X at both the 2019 World Championships, winning a bronze medal, and the 2021 Europeans where she finished fifth. She will probably start as marginal favourite to take the title.
The main challengers to Arlett will most likely be Marie-Louise Drager of Germany and Martine Veldhuis of The Netherlands.
At 41, Drager is the oldest competitor in the field. She started her senior career in 2001 and has won no fewer than five World Championship golds (including the LW1X in 2019) and one European title. This season she has raced the light single at the second and third World Cups winning bronze in Poznan and fifth in Lucerne.
Veldhuis was European champion in this boat class in 2020 and just missed the podium in 2021. This season she finished runner-up to Grant in Belgrade and then raced in the LW2X in Poznan finishing eighth.
An interesting entry is that from Italy. Stefania Buttignon was the BLW2X World Champion in 2018 but since then has been racing in the open-weight category finishing seventh in the W2X at the 2019 World Championships and also seventh at the 2021 Europeans. This season she also raced the W2X placing ninth in Lucerne.
Aoife Casey from Ireland makes her 2022 debut in Munich. She was part of the LW2X that finished eighth at the Tokyo Olympics. For Munich her seat in the double is filled by Lydia Heaphy. Munich will be Casey’s first international race in the single
Another athlete who has spent most of her career in the LW2X is Natalia Miguel Gomez of Spain. She and partner Rocio Lao Sanchez were 12th at the 2021 Europeans and missed qualification for Tokyo at the Final Olympic Qualifying Regatta. Since moving to the lightweight single at the start of this season she’s had more success, winning the first medal of her career when taking bronze in Belgrade (Spain’s first medal in this boat class since 2016).
Another highly experienced athlete in the event is Ionel Cozmuic of Romania. She is a two-time Olympian and won the LW2X World Championships in 2017 and 2018. This season she has made one appearance, racing in the W4X at the Lucerne World Cup.
Predictions: Not a huge amount of form to go on in the Light single, but I’m going for a win for Great Britain with Italy in silver and Romania in third.
LW2X
13 entries
Great Britain has dominated this event so far this season with wins at both the Belgrade and Lucerne World Cups. They make one change to that winning combination with Imogen Grant returning to the seat she occupied at the Tokyo Olympics and re-joins with Olympic doubles partner, Emily Craig. The addition of Grant should make this boat even faster than it has been so far this season so should be the favourites to take the title.
The main challengers to the British will be Italy and France. Italy, Valentina Rodini and Frederica Cesarini, are the reigning European and Olympic Champions, although this season in their one race this season in Lucerne they could “only” manage bronze.
France, Claire Bove and Laura Tarantola, are the reigning Olympic silver medallists and Bove has a European bronze medal in the LW1X from 2021. This season they have also only made one appearance, in Lucerne, where they were runners-up to the British by less than half a second.
The medals in Munich will most likely come from these four crews, but outside of the main medal contenders watch for the young Greek crew, Dimitra Eleni Kontou and Evangelia Anastasiadou. Kontou is just 16 and was fifth in the BW1X this year. Anastasiadou is 20 and won the U23 BLW1X World Championships this season. They raced as a double at the first World Cup finishing fifth.
Predictions: Hard to look past the British for gold. I think Italy will sneak silver ahead of France.
LW4X
2 entries
Italy v Germany…Germany are a young crew with three members who raced at the 2022 U23 World Championships. Rieke Hulsen and Romy Dreher won silver in the BLW4X and Cosima Clotten was fifth in the BLW1X. The fourth member of the crew is Katrin Volk who raced with Dreher in the LW2X at the Poznan World Cup.
Italy has a more experienced crew which includes 2019 World Champions in this boat class, Giulia Mignemi and Arianna Noseda. They are joined by 2020 European bronze medallist, Paola Piazzolla and 2021 U23 World Champion Silvia Crosio.
Predictions: This should be a win for the Italians.
LM1X
13 entries
Not a particularly deep field in this event. The favourite for gold will most likely be Gabriel Soares of Italy. He was World Champion in the LM4X in 2019 and won European silver in the LM1X last year. This season he raced in the LM2X in Lucerne winning the gold medal.
Whilst the majority of athletes in this event are spares for the Olympic class LM2x boat, Rajko Hrvat of Slovenia is a LM1X specialist. He’s been racing almost exclusively in this boat class since 2012. The highlight of his career came in 2015, winning a silver medal at the World Championships. This season he raced at the first and third World Cups, winning a silver medal in Belgrade and taking fifth in Lucerne.
Andri Struzina of Switzerland has spent the last few seasons racing in the LM2X. At the 2021 Europeans he and partner Jan Schaeuble were fifth. This season he and Schaeuble raced at the Poznan and Lucerne World Cups winning bronze in Poland and making the A-Final on their home water. For Munich he misses out on a seat in the double to Raphael Ahumada of Ireland.
Greece is represented by Antonios Papakonstantinou. He was the 2021 U23 BLM1x World Champion and finished fourth at the 2020 Europeans in this boat class. This season he raced in the M2X at the Belgrade World Cup finishing fourth.
Bulgaria also has a young sculler in this event; Lazar Penev was U23 bronze medallist in 2021 and this season has a fourth place from the Poznan World Cup.
Ahmet Rapi of Sweden was 13th in this event in 2020, but this season saw him win Sweden’s first ever medal in the LM1X taking bronze at the Belgrade World Cup.
Another sculler to watch will be Daniel Gutierrez Garcia of Spain. He was 11th in this event in 2020 and this season placed fourth in Belgrade and eighth in Lucerne.
Predictions: Soares in gold ahead of Struzina in silver with Hrvat in bronze.
LM2X
15 entries
This has the makings of an absolute classic, with the Irish reigning European, World and Olympic Champions, Fintan McCarthy and Paul O’Donovan racing the double for the first time this season, taking on the Italians, Pietro Ruta and Stefano Oppo, silver medallists in 2019, European Champions in 2020 and bronze medallists in Tokyo. Both McCarthy and O’Donovan have raced the LM1X this season, McCarthy winning silver in Poznan and O’Donovan gold in Lucerne. Finally, they are back in the double and will be looking to retain their title. The Italians raced two doubles in Lucerne with Ruto and Oppo in different boats, but they finished first and second in Lucerne just 3/tenth apart. With the top two crews racing together and against each other for the first time this season there should be fireworks.
Behind these two the race for the bronze will be equally fierce. The Czech duo of Jiri Simanek and Miroslav Vrastil have been racing together since 2017; they finished fourth at the 2021 Europeans and also placed fourth at the Tokyo Olympics.
Spain also has the same line-up that raced in Tokyo; Manel Balastegui and Caetano Horta Pomba won the B-Final at the Olympics and were also B-Final winners at the Europeans. This season they have a silver medal from Belgrade and yet another seventh place at Lucerne.
France has been struggling to find successors to the legendary Azou and Delayre for a number of years. This season there are encouraging signs that they have a medal-potential combination. Hugo Beurey and Ferdinand Ludwig won a silver medal in Poznan and were fourth in Lucerne.
Norway will also be strong contenders for a medal. Their line-up of Lars Benske and Ask Jarl Tjoem took the gold in Poznan and bronze in Lucerne.
Switzerland has an exciting young combination racing this season, Jan Schaeuble and Raphael Ahumada Ireland. They were both members of the Swiss U23 team in 2021, Schaeuble placed fourth in the BLM1X and Ahumada Ireland sixth in the BLM2X. This season they won Switzerland’s first LM2X World Cup gold medal in over 20 years with a win in Belgrade. They followed that with bronze in Poznan. They should definitely be in the hunt for the bronze.
Ukraine has the same pairing that finished ninth in Tokyo, Stanislav Kovalov and Igor Khmara. They reached the A-Final of last year’s Europeans and so far this season, have also made the A-Finals at the first and second World Cups.
Great Britain is racing a LM2X for the first time since the Final Olympic Qualifying Regatta in 2021. Jamie Copus, stalwart of the British lightweight team since 2015, is joined by Scotsman, Dale Flockhart, making his senior international debut in Munich. This duo hasn’t raced the World Cup circuit this season but did take a win in the double at the Holland Beker. It’s a really tough field for the British to try and break in to, but if they can make the A-Final it’ll be a good marker for the World next month.
Predictions: Ireland in gold ahead of Italy in silver (and thee two well clear of the rest of the field). I’m going for Norway to grab the bronze.
LM2-
3 entries
Munich will be the first time this season that there’s been a LM2- event so the form guide is a little sketchy.
Hungary’s Bence Szabo and Kalman Furko are the reigning European champions in this event and took fourth at the World Championships in 2019.
Slovenia is represented by Nik Azbe Magajina and Jaka Malesic. Magajina makes his international debut in Munich, and Malesic raced the LM1X during the 2021 World Cup series.
The final crew in the event are Turkey, Enes Yenipazarli and Bayra Sonmez. This duo raced as a LM2x at the 2019 World Championships finishing first. This season Yenipazarl raced in the LM1X in Belgrade, placing tenth.
Predictions: Hungary to retain their title with Slovenia in silver. No bronze will be awarded as it’s only a three-boat event.
LM4X
2 entries
As with the LW4x, it’s a Germany v Italy contest.
Italy has won this event at the last four European Championships and their crew for Munich and has the same line-up that won in 2020 and 2021, Antonio Vicino, Martino Goretti, Niels Torre and Patric Rocek. They face a German crew that won a two-boat final in Lucerne; Simon Klueter, Johannes Ursprung, Fabio Kress and Joachim Agne.
This should be a comfortable win (again) for the Italians.
