Cover image: World Rowing / Benedict Tufnell
2022 Champions: Rory Gibbs, Morgan Bolding, Dave Bewicke-Copley, Sholto Carnegie, Charlie Elwes, Tom Digby, James Rudkin, Tom Ford, Harry Brightmore (Great Britain)
Entries: 10
Olympic qualifying places: 5
This event has been dominated by Germany and Great Britain – the last 10 World Championships have been won by either Germany or GB (the score is currently 6:4 to Germany). Canada was the last other nation to win a World Championship M8 back in 2007. However, since taking silver at the Tokyo Olympics, the Germans have been going through a serious rebuilding process which has, at times, proved quite painful with their chief coach being sacked and some significant disagreements between the athletes and team management. The nadir came in 2022 when the German M8 missed the A-Final for the first time since 1999. After finishing fourth at the Europeans this season (the third time in a row they’d finished fourth at the Euros) they showed signs of improvement winning the bronze in Varese, but in Lucerne they slipped back, finishing fifth. They are a relatively young crew, and will no doubt improve over the next 12 months, but their biggest challenge in Belgrade is making the top-five and qualify the boat for Paris, and that may well be a very significant challenge.
Great Britain have been the dominant crew in the last couple of years. Since finishing third at Tokyo, the GB M8 has only been beaten once, although crucially that was in their last race in Lucerne when they were caught napping by Australia. GB has made one change to the crew that raced in Lucerne – World Champion Charlie Elwes returns from injury which means there’s now just one change from the crew that won gold last year (Jacob Dawson replacing Dave Bewicke-Copley). The British will start as favourites in Belgrade and it’s unlikely they’ll allow the Aussies to get the jump on them as they did in Lucerne. One interesting factoid – if GB do win in Belgrade, they will become the first nation to be World Champions at U19, U23 and senior levels.
Australia obviously come into Belgrade on a high after becoming the first crew to beat GB for two years. They’ve made a number of changes from the crew that won bronze in 2022 with just Angus Widdicombe and Ben Canham remaining. This season they won silver in Varese over a length behind GB but for Lucerne they moved Angus Dawson and Jack O’Brien from the M2- into the eight (replacing Simon Keenan and Jackson Kench) and that was enough to get them ahead of GB. They will be GB’s main competitors in Belgrade and the big question is can they do the double over the World Champions?
The Netherlands will also be strong contenders for a medal. They were silver medalists in 2022 and have five of that crew returning for 2023 (Guus Mollee, Jacob Van De Kerkhof, Guillaume Krommenhoek, Mick Makker and Dieuwke Fetter). The Dutch also made the podium at the Europeans and for Lucerne they made a number of changes to strengthen the crew, moving Guus Mollee, Gert-Jan Van Doorn and Olav Molenaar from the European silver medal M4- into the eight. This revised unit ended up taking bronze in Lucerne.
The USA pride themselves on the M8 although they’ve not won the world title since 2005. They finished fourth last year and have three of that crew racing in their new-look 2023 eight (Pieter Quinton, Chris Carlton and James Catalano). The US crew is a mix of new and experienced athletes with two of the crew making their senior debuts; U23 silver medalist Peter Chatain and Columbia University’s Alexander Hedge. Belgrade will be this crew’s first race so it’s going to be interesting to see how they fare, but the US rarely produces a slow M8 and they will be targeting a top-five finish as the bare minimum.
Canada are also a nation with a strong tradition in this boat class. As mentioned above, they were the last nation other than GB or Germany to actually win the World Championships. In recent years the Canadian men’s team has lost its way a little and their results have been disappointing – their fifth place in 2022 was their best result since 2011. They have five of that 2022 crew back in 2023; Curtis Ames, Jakub Buczek, Ryan Clegg, William Crothers and Laura Court in the coxes seat. This season they raced at both the second and third World Cups, taking fifth in Varese and then sixth in Lucerne. Like the USA they will be targeting the top-five in Belgrade to secure Olympic qualification.
Romania were silver medalists at the Europeans and pushed GB incredibly close (the margin of victory for GB was just 5/100th of a second). They have the very experienced Stefan Berariu and Mugurel Vasile Semciuc in the stern – these two were members of the M4- that won silver in Tokyo. In Lucerne the Romanians finished fourth but for Belgrade they’ve made a number of changes, bringing in four U23 internationals; Claudiu Neamtu, Andrei Mandrila plus Alexandru-Laurentiu Danciu from the 2023 BM4- and Dumitru-Alexandru Ciobica from the 2021 BM4-. This looks to be making the boat more of a development crew rather than the medal-contenders their form at the Europeans would suggest and they look to be prioritising the M4- instead (they doubled-up at the Euros which they’re not doing in Belgrade).
Italy were fourth in Varese and they have a crew that is stacked with Olympians. Giovanni Abagnale from the M4-, Gennaro Di Mauro from the M1X and Simone Venier from the M4X all feature. The Italians have struggled to get a really fast M8 in the last few years despite stacking it with talent. The last time they won a medal was in 2017 (bronze), their best ever result came in 2006 when they won silver and they’ve not had a M8 at an Olympics since Athens. The fourth place they achieved in Lucerne shows that this crew is capable of challenging for a top-five finish.
The final two crews racing are Austria and China. Austria raced in Lucerne (the first time they raced a M8 since 1975) tbut missed out on the final. It’s still excellent to see them continue with the eight. China finished eighth in the M8 last year and have three of that crew back in 2023; Binghui Cui, Gaoxing Ji and Yi Lyu. They are joined by a number of athletes making their international debuts; Yide Nie, Jingying Cai and Minghua Su. The Chinese haven’t raced the M8 during the World Cup series so will be something of an unknown quantity in Belgrade, but China hasn’t made the A-Final of the M8 at a World Championships since 1991 so it would be a massive achievement if they manage that this year.
Predictions: Just making the A-Final won’t be enough to guarantee Olympic qualification so racing will be absolutely brutal. My money is on GB to retain their title, but they will be pushed hard by Australia, and the Netherlands are my pick for the bronze. I’m also going to go for the USA to take fourth and Germany to just sneak into fifth and secure their place in Paris.
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