2022 World Cup II – Men’s Events Preview

Men’s Single Scull

Twenty-three entries

World Cup 1 Winner: Ollie Zeidler (Germany)

With Germany’s Ollie Zeidler, winner in Belgrade, not racing in Poznan the race becomes wide open and promises some intriguing competition.
Runner-up to Zeidler in Belgrade was Melvin Twellaar of the Netherlands. Twellaar raced in the M2x at the Olympics with Stef Broenink picking up a silver medal (which was the Netherland’s first Olympic medal in this event since Barcelona in 1992). A former U23 silver medallist, he made his senior debut in 2018 and won gold in the M2X at the 2020 European Championships.

France are the Olympic Champions in the M2X and their duo of Matthieu Androdias and Hugo Boucheron are both racing in the single in Poznan. As well as being Olympic Champions this duo were also World Champions in 2018 and placed 6th at the Rio Olympics. However, they haven’t very often competed internationally in the single. Boucheron last did it at the 2017 European Championships when he finished 4th and Androdias hasn’t raced the singe since the 2013 Europeans where he came 9th. It’s going to be fun to watch them race the single and there will, no doubt, be a huge amount of bragging rights over who comes out the fastest.

Another Tokyo Olympic gold medallist racing in the single is Alex Hill of Australia. He was a member of the Aussie M4- that won in Tokyo. He is also a two-time World Champion in the M4- with golds in 2017 and 201 and also won silver in the M4- in Rio. But his international record in sculling is a bit thin on the ground, indeed Poznan will be his first competitive race in the M1X on the world stage. It’ll be interesting to see how he stacks up against the rest of the field.
Australia has a 2nd sculler in this event, David Bartholot. He raced in the M2X with Caleb Antill at the 2019 World Championships finishing 12th.
Canada’s Trevor Jones competed in the single at the Tokyo Olympics finishing 3rd in the B-Final to take 9th overall. Jones was U23 BM1X world Champion in 2017 and 2018. He made his senior debut in 2017 taking 14th at the 3rd World Cup and in 2019 finished 14th in the M2X at the world Championships. His 9th in Tokyo clearly shows his got the potential to be challenging for the medals in the single as we approach the Paris Olympics.

Another experienced Olympian racing in the single is Wiktor Chabel from Poland. He was a member of the M4X that finished 4th in Tokyo. He also raced at the Rio Olympics in the quad, again finishing just off the podium. The 36-year-old made his international debut in 2007, but this will be his first international race in the single.
Bulgaria has two scullers competing in this event and ourdoubling-up in theM2X. Racing as BUL1 is Kristian Vasilev. He finished 5th at the 1st World Cup. In 2021 he narrowly missed qualifying for the Olympics finishing 5th at the Final Olympic Qualifying Regatta. He did race at the Rio games, placing 9th in the M2X.

BUL2 is Emil Neykov. The reigning European and world U23 BM1X champion, he also raced in Belgrade finishing 10th.

New Zealand has a fantastic tradition in this boat class, but their representative in Poznan, James Scott, is part of the M4X squad and the Kiwis haven’t (yet) selected a specialist M1X for the rest of this season. Scott, from the Tauranga Rowing Club is making his international debut in Poznan.
Another Tokyo Olympian competing in Poznan is Ben Davison of the USA. He raced in the M8 at Tokyo Games that finished 4th. He has also raced internationally in the US sculling team finishing 14th in the M2X at the 2018 World Championships, and was 4th in the BM1X at the 2018 U23 World Championships.

One of the few specialist single scullers competing is Quentin Antognelli of Monaco. He raced in Tokyo finishing 15th and was 17th at the Belgrade World Cup.

Bastian Secher of Denmark won the B-Final in Belgrade and last season took bronze at the u23 World Championships.

Predictions:

With few specialist single scullers competing it’ll be interesting to see how the fieldstacks up, but Twellaar of the Netherlands is in good form and the two French scullers will no doubt be fairly rapid as well. I’m going to pick the Dutchman for the gold with the two French scullers battling it out behind him.

Men’s Double

Fifteen Entries

World Cup 1 winner: Croatia (Martin Sinkovic & Valent Sinkovic)

The big story for 2022 in this event was the return of the 2016 Olympic Champions, Martin and Valent Sinkovic from Croatia. After winning Olympic gold in Rio they switched to the M2- and went on to win gold in that boat class in Tokyo. Now back in their preferred event, they kicked started their Paris campaign with a win in Belgrade (maintaining their current unbeaten record in that boat class). But, they were made to work hard for that win having to come from behind in the final 500m to overhaul the Polish. It’ll be intriguing to watch in Poznan whether that performance was more to do with early season rustiness, or whether the rest of the world is catching up with the world’s greatest ever M2X.

Poland are back for another crack at the Croatians, Miroslaw Zietarski and Fabian Baranski both raced in Tokyo, Zeitarski finishing 6th in the M2x and Baranski 4th in the M4X. Zietarski made his senior debut in 2013 and was a member of the M4X that finished 4th in Rio. After Rio he switched to the M2X winning World Championship silver in 2018. Baranski debuted in 2019 and partnered Zietarski to European gold that year before moving across to the quad for the World Championships winning a silver medal.
One very intriguing entry is from Estonia, Stephan Krueger and Kaspar Taimsoo. What makes this entry so interesting is that Krueger has spent the last 17 years racing for Germany and competed at the Beijing, London, Rio and Tokyo Olympics. Taimsoo is another very seasoned campaigner having made his senior debut in 2007. He’s also got four Olympic appearances to his credit including a M4X bronze medal from 2016.

Germany has two crews racing in Poznan. GER1 is Moritz Wolff and Max Appel. Wolff won silver at the U23 World Championships last year and Appel was a member of the M4X that finished 6th in Tokyo. GER2 is Jannis Romanowski, who is making his international debut in Poznan, and Hannes Ocik. Ocik is more renowned as a sweep oarsman and was a member of the GER M8 that won silver at the Rio and Tokyo Olympics, he also won world Championship gold in 2017, 2018 and 2019. However, international sculling will be a new challenge for Ocik, indeed he’s not raced in anything other than the M8 since 2012.
Australia have selected two members of the Olympic bronze medal quad to race in the M2X in Poznan, Caleb Antill and Jack Cleary. Cleary made his senior debut in Tokyo having previously raced on the U23 team winning a bronze in the BM4+ at the 2016 U23 world Championships. Antill raced in the double at the 2019 World Championships, finishing 12th.

The Netherlands also has two boats competing in this event, as they did in Belgrade. At the first world Cup it was NED2, Guus Mollee and Guillaume Krommenhoek who fared better, taking 5th place. Their teammates, racing as NED1 Koen Metsemakers and Stefan Broenink ended up in the B-Final which they won. Both Metesmakers and Broenink are Olympic medallists, with Broenink winning silver in the M2x and Metsemakers gold in the M4X. Mollee is an U23 bronze medallist from 2021 and Krommenhoek finished 7th in the M2- in Tokyo. Om paper NED1 have much the better pedigree and they will be looking to improve on their 7th place from Belgrade.

Also racing in Poznan are 2 USA boats. USA1 is Jonathan Kirkegaard and Kevin Cardno. They missed qualifying for Tokyo at the FOQR and raced at the 2nd world Cup of 2021 finishing 14th. USA2 is Dominique Williams and James Philal. Williams, a former Penn Lightweight, is making his international debut, and Philal makes his senior debut having raced on the U23 team in 2018.

Predictions:

Hard to pick anyone other than the Croatians, indeed it will be a major upset if they don’t win. But the Poles, Dutch and Australians will be pushing them very, very hard.
Croatia for gold with NED2 in silver and Poland in bronze.

Men’s Pair

Nineteen Entries

World Cup 1 winner: Great Britain (Tom George & Ollie Wynne-Griffith)

After a dominating performance in Belgrade the British will no doubt be watching with interest to see how this event unfolds.

New Zealand have an awesome reputation in this evet and any Kiwi sitting in a coxless pair carries a huge tradition on their shoulders. Taking on that responsibility in Poznan are Matt Macdonald and Thomas McIntosh. They were both members of the Olympic gold medal M8 from Tokyo. Word coming out of New Zealand is that this pair are very, very rapid. It’s going to be fascinating to see if these rumours bare out.

Australia is another nation with a strong tradition in this boat class. Their crew for 2022 are also experienced Olympians. Simon Keenan and Nick Lavery were both members of the M8 that finished 6th in Tokyo. Keenan also raced in the M8 that won world Championship silver in 2018, whilst Lavery made his senior debut in Tokyo after racing on the U23 team in 2019. Australia has a 2nd crew racing, Benjamin Canham and Sam Marsh. Canham was U23 world Champion in 2019 and Marsh finished 8th in the BM1X at the 2018 U23 world Championships. Both make their senior debuts in Poznan.

4th in Belgrade were the Netherlands, Niki van Sprang and Lennart van Lierop. Van Sprang raced in this event in Tokyo winning the B-Final. Lierop is a former lightweight international and raced in the LM8 back in 2014.

The USA also has two crews racing. USA1 is Michael Grady and Justin Best. Both were members of the US Olympic team in Tokyo. Grady finished 5th in the M4- and best 4th in the M8. USA2 is Andrew le Roux and Michael Clougher. Le Roux makes his senior debut having won a bronze medal at the Junior worlds of 2016. Clougher raced in the M4- in 2018 finishing 13th.
France is another nation with 2 crew racing. FRA1 contains Olympian Thibaud Turlan who finished 9th in this boat class in Tokyo. He’s joined by Louis Chamorand who won the B-Final at the u23 World Championships last year. FRA2 are two u23 internationals making their senior debuts, Florian Ludwig finished 6th in the BM4X and Armand Pfister 10th in the BM8.

Keeping up the practice of entering two boats is China. They have split their M4- that finished 7th in Belgrade into two pairs. Racing as CHN1 is Lu Sun and Yincen Meng and CHN2 is Jie Wei and Yi Lyu.

Predictions:

I’m going to pick the Kiwis to open with a win with Australia in silver and the USA1 in bronze.

Men’s Quadruple Scull

Fourteen entries

World Cup 1 winner: China

China is unchanged for Poznan from the crew that won in Belgrade (Ha Zang Xudi yi, Zhiyu Liu, Sultan Adilijiang). Zang and Yi were in the M4X that finished 7th in Tokyo and Liu took bronze in the eM2X. for many people (me included) the Chinese M4X were probably the best crew of any event at Belgrade, it’ll be interesting to see if they carry that superb form through to Poznan.
Also unchanged from Belgrade are The Netherlands (Finn Florijn, Jan van Der Bij, Jacob van der Kerkhof, Abe Wiersma). They finished runners up to the Chinese, and with a crew containing three Tokyo Olympians (including gold medallist Wiersma) they will be looking to reverse the result from WC1.

Another crew packed with Olympians is New Zealand. Their crew includes Phillip Wilson, a member of the gold medal M8 (who’s last international sculling race was at the Junior world Championships). Also in the boat are Brook Robertson, who raced the M- in Tokyo and Jordan Parry who finished 13th in the M1X. the only non-Olympian in the crew is Jack O’Leary, making his senior debut after racing in the U23 team in 2018. It’ll be interesting to see how this crew of mainly experienced sweep rowers gets on in a boat as technical as the quad.

Another boat with three Tokyo Olympians is Poland. They have made one change to the crew that finished 5th in Belgrade. Mateusz Biskup comes into the crew having raced in the single in Belgrade. He finished 6th in the M2x in Tokyo. He joins Dominik Czaja and Szymon Posnik who raced the quad in Tokyo just missing the podium, and U23 silver medallist, and the non-Olympian of the crew, Piotr Plominski.

Poland has a 2nd u23 crew racing, based around the crew that finished 5th at the 2021 U23 World Championships, Krzystof Kasparek, Bartosz Bartkowski and Cezary Litka. The 4th member of the crew is Jakub Wozniak who finished 8th in the BM1X last year.

As mentioned earlier, Estonia won bronze in this boat class back in Rio and finished 6th in Tokyo and have two of that crew still racing, Allar Raja and Tonu Endrekson. Endrekson, who turned 42 last week, and Raja (who turns 39 next week) have both been racing on the senior circuit since the early noughties. For Poznan they are joined by Johan Poolak, and Mikhail Kushteyn who raced the M2X at the FOQR missing out on qualifying for Tokyo (Kushteyn was 6 months old when Endrekson made his senior debut in 2000!)
Norway finishd 9th at the Tokyo Olympics, and with the retirement of the legendary Olaf Tufte, they have drafted in former lightweight World Champion and Olympic bronze medallist, Kristoffer Brun. He joins Erik Solbakken, Martin Helseth and Jan Helvig.

Germany has made one change to the crew that finished 5th in Belgrade with Stephan Reimekasten coming in to join David Junge, Anton Finger and Julius Rommelmann. Reimekasten raced the single in Belgrade finishing 5th in the B-Final. Germany has a strong reputation in this boat class but have struggled in recent years to get amongst the medals.
Switzerland is unchanged from the crew that finished 6th in Belgrade (Dominic Condrau, Nils Schneider, Patrick Brunner and Kai Schaetzle).
Also racing are two crews from the Czech Republic. CZE1 is unchanged from the crew that finished 9th in Belgrade, and CZE2 are an U23 crew stroked by 2021 u23 World Champion, Daniel Nosek. France has a crew which includes Rio Olympian Valentin Onfroy and U23 lightweight medallist Victor Marcelot. The final two entries are India and an U23 crew from Ukraine.

Predictions:

I think the Chinese will make it 2 from 2 for the season with Poland and the Netherlands battling it out for silver and bronze.

Men’s Four

Twelve Entries

World Cup 1 winner: Great Britain

Clear favourites for Poznan are Australia. They have three of the crew that won gold in Tokyo, Alex Purnell, Spencer Turrin, & Jack Hargreaves. The new member of the crew is Joseph O’Brien, he was a member of the M8 that finished 6th in Tokyo and also rowed in the M4- in 2019. The regular showdown between the British and Australian M4-‘s is one of the regular features of the season, and given GB’s dominating performance in Belgrade, the Aussies will be wanting to lay down a similar marker before the two crews finally meet later in the season.

Behind Australia the battle for the minor medals will be led by The Netherlands. They only have two boats racing in Poznan (compared to the veritable armada of 4 they had in Belgrade). The Dutch coaches have mixed the top two boats from Belgrade, NED1 is Ralf and Rik Rienks from the 2nd placed crew and Ruben Knab and Sander de Graaf from the 4th placed crew (I hope you’re following this). NED2 contains Bjorn van Den Ende & Nelson Ritsema from the crew that finished 4th along with Michiel Mantel and Mick Makker from the crew which won silver.

China also has two crew racing in Poznan. CHN1 is unchanged from the crew that took bronze in Belgrade (Wenlei Li, Xianfeng Chen, Qiao Xu and Pengpeng Cai). CHN2 is a young crew, tree of whom raced in the M8 that finished 3rd from 3 in Belgrade (Ruihao Su, Binghui Cui and Wei Liu). The 4th member of the crew is former junior international Gaoxing Ji.

Poland finished 6th in Belgrade and have made one change to that crew, with Piotr Juszczak coming in at bow. Mikolaj Burda and Mateusz Wilangowski were in the crew that won the B-Final in Tokyo and took a somewhat surprise gold at the world Championships in 2019.

The USA has selected a young crew. Chris Carlson and Andrew Gaard were both members of the U23 BM8 that won the world Championships in 2018 and then silver in 2019. They made their senior debuts in 2019 as part of a young US M8 at the final world Cup, winning the B-Final. They are joined in Poznan by Michael Knippen, who raced in the M4X in 2018 and 2019 and in the stroke seat is former junior bronze medallist, Piete Quinlon.

I think the medals will come from these boats, the rest of the field is made up of mostly young, U23 crews (France, Denmark, Germany, 2 crews from Japan and Norway).

Predictions:

It will be a shock and a significant dent to the confidence is Australia don’t start their campaign with a win. But behind them the battle should be interesting, not just between the two Dutch boats, but also the Chinese and Poles. I’m going for NED1 in silver and CHN in bronze.

Men’s Eight

Seven Entries

World Cup 1 winner: Great Britain

Germany didn’t race at Belgrade but did have a race at Essen where they saw off a good French crew. It’s a new look boat from the one that won silver in Tokyo with only three members of that crew remaining (Olaf Roggensack, Laurits Follert and Torben Johannesen). The bulk of the crew all come from the 2021 U23 bronze medal boat (Jasper Angel, Julien Garth, Benedict Eggeling and Mattes Schoenherr), the final member of the crew is Wolf-Niclas Schroeder who was in the M4- that failed to qualify for Tokyo at the FOQR. Germany will not only be looking for the win, but they will be looking to lay down a strong performance., especially to Great Britain, who’s 10 second margin of victory in Belgrade was the biggest ever for a M8 at a World Cup.

Canada has struggled in the M8 in the last few years and have only had one podium finish (a bronze at the 2nd World Cup of 2019) in the last 10 years. But they have put together a decent-looking crew containing three of the M4- that raced in Tokyo (Luke Gadson, Will Crothers & Jakub Buczek). Also in the crew is Cody Bailey who rowed in the M8 in 2018and former lightweight international Joshua King. The engine room of the crew are all relative newcomers, Curtis Ames sits at 6, he was in the U23 BM8 in 2019 and at 5 and 4 are two debutants, Terek Been and Ryan Clegg.

Australia also has a crew which mixes youth and experience. In the 4 and 5 seat are two Tokyo Olympians, Angus Widdicombe at 4 and Sam Hardy at 5. Widdicombe rowed in the 6th place M8 and Hardy finished 10th in the M2-. The rest of the crew are all making the step up from the U23 team (with the exception of Patrick Holt from the University of Queensland who makes his international debut) Jackson Kench, Henry Youl, Ben Canham (who is doubling-up in the M2-), William O’Shannessy and Rohan Lavery.

The Czech Republic, Poland and Ukraine all look to have entered their U23 crews. The Poles have made one change to the crew that finished 11th at the U23 World championships last year. The Czech crew has an average age of 18.5 and includes three embers of their 6th place BM8 from last year. Ukraine average age is 19.5 and 5 of their crew are racing on the world stage for the first time.

The final crew racing are India, and it’s great to see an Indian M8 entered (along with their W8 as well). This crew is based around the M4- that finished 9th in Belgrade.

So in reality there are two races going on in this event. The battle for the medals will be between Germany, Australia and Canada, while behind them there will be an equally fierce battle of the U23’s along with India looking to take one or 2 scalps.

Predictions:

Germany will want to win and win well to send a message to GB (and the rest of the world). But they won’t have it easy with Canada and Australia both looking like they have crews that will push the Germans hard. I’m going for a German win by half a length over Australia with Canada picking up only their 2nd M8 medal in 10 years.

Sadly, with time getting the better of me and racing starting in the morning I shall have to keep my preview of the lightweight men’s events very brief;

Lightweight Men’s Double

Nineteen Entries

World Cup 1 winner: Switzerland (Jan Schaeuble & Raphael Ahumada Ireland)

Switzerland’s win in Belgrade was the first in this boat class since 2001 and they are back in Belgrade to try and repeat that feat. But the standard of competition (whilst high in Belgrade) goes up a notch in Poznan. In particular the appearance of Ireland will be a major challenge to the Swiss repeating their win. Fintan McCarthy won gold in Tokyo with Paul O’Donovan, but for Poznan he’s joined by Paul’s brother, Gary. However, given Gary is himself an Olympic silver medallist and former World Champion in this event it probably won’t make much difference to the boat speed.

The other crew to watch out for is New Zealand, Matt Dunham and Chris Stockley. Dunham is a former LM1X World silver medallist and finished 4th in the LM2x in 2018. Stockley makes his senior debut having raced in the U23 BLM2X in 2018 and 2019.

Also watch for Ukraine, Igor Khmara and Stanislav Kovalov, they were 9th in Tokyo and this season finished 5th at the 1st World Cup. Norway has 2 boats in the event with the pick probably being NOR2 Jens Holm and Oskar Soedal who won bronze at the final world Cup of 2021.

Predictions:

Ireland in gold ahead of Switzerland in silver and the Kiwis in

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