Cover image: World Rowing / Benedict Tufnell
Reigning Champions: Paul O’Donovan and Fintan Mc Carthy (Ireland)
Entries: 27
Olympic qualifying places: 7
The Irish have dominated this event, winning the World Championships in 2018, 2019 and 2022. They also took the Olympic title in Tokyo and were European Champions in 2021 and 2022. However they suffered a surprise defeat in their one and only race this season, being pushed into silver by a resurgent France. Paul O’Donovan raced with his brother Gary to a famous silver medal in Rio, and they went on to win World Championship gold in 2018. Paul formed a new partnership with Fintan Mc Carthy in 2019, winning another World Championship gold and then the Olympic title in Tokyo followed by another World Championship last year. Their loss in Lucerne could be put down to race-rustiness and they are still the crew to beat in this event.
France were the dominant force in the LM2X before the Irish came along – their double of Houin and Azou won in Rio and also took world championship gold in 2017. When Azou retired the French struggled to find a fast combination with their best result being sixth at the Worlds last year with their partnership of Ferdinand Ludwig and Hugo Beurey. This duo has stepped up in 2023, winning a silver medal at the Varese World Cup and then snatching gold ahead of the Irish in Lucerne by just 9/100th of a second.
One of the standout crews of the season has been Switzerland (Raphael Ahumada Ireland and Jan Schaeuble). They won bronze at the 2022 Europeans and followed that with a fourth-place at the World Championships. This season, they have won gold at the Europeans (Switzerland’s first Championship gold in the LM2X since the Atlanta Olympics). They also won gold at both the first and second World Cups and were bronze medalists in Lucerne.
Bronze medalists at the Europeans this season was Greece, Antonios Papakonstantinou and Petros Gkaidatzis. Papakonstantinou was U23 BLM1X World Champion in 2021 and won the LM1X gold at the 2022 Europeans. He also raced in the LM1X last year winning the World Championships. Gkaidatzis raced the light double in 2019 but finished near the back of the D-Final. This season they look to be a much more competitive duo. A bronze at the Europeans was followed by an appearance in the A-Final at Lucerne.
Spain have also had a pretty good season so far. Caetano Horta Pombo and Dennis Carracedo Ferrero won bronze at the opening World Cup and followed that with a B-Final win at the Europeans and an A-Final placing in Lucerne. Horta Pomba was in the crew that won the Olympic B-Final and finished eighth at the 2022 World Championship with Manel Balastegui. At just 20 years of age, Manel is a big talent with the right partner and alongside Carracedo Ferraro the Spanish look to have found a very promising combination.
Mexico matched their best ever performance in this event when they finished fourth in Lucerne (matching the fourth place they achieved at the Princeton World Cup of 2021). Miguel Angel Carballo Nieto and Alexis Bladimir Lopez Garcia are a new combination this year. Carballo Nieto’s previous best was fourth in the M4X at the first World Cup of 2019. Lopez Garcia is the more experienced of the two – he finished eighth in the LM1X at the 2022 Worlds and was fourth in the same event in 2019. He’s also got two U23 World Championship medals to his credit; bronze in 2016 and silver in 2017.
Italy has always been strong in this event; they’ve been silver medalists at the last four World Championships and haven’t finished outside of the top-five since 1995. They have a new combination for 2023, Stefano Oppo and Gabriel Soares. They won silver at the Europeans and then bronze in Lucerne. Oppo was in the double that won World Championship silver in 2017, 2018 and 2019 and 2022 along with Olympic bronze in Tokyo (partnered by Pietro Ruta). Soares won the LM1X World Championships last year, and also has World and European titles from the LM4X. This is his first season in the Olympic class boat and the Italians will be desperate to claim their first World title since 2003 after a run of four silvers.
China’s Junjie Fan and Man Sun were World Championship bronze medallists back in 2017, but 12th in 2019 saw them having to race the FOQR for an Olympic spot which they missed by just one place. Fan missed the 2022 season, but he and Sun reunited for 2023 and finished fourth in Varese. They withdrew from Lucerne on medical grounds after failing to progress out of the rep. It remains to be seen what speed they bring to Belgrade but will be hoping to make the A-Final.
Another experienced duo are Jiri Simanek and Miroslav Vrastil of Czechia. They finished fourth in Tokyo (the best ever result for a Czech lightweight crew at the Olympic Games). They followed this with an A-Final finish at both the 2022 European and World Championships. This season they have shown good consistency with silver at the first World Cup, fourth at the Europeans and a B-Final win in Lucerne. Securing a top-seven finish, and therefore Olympic qualification, will be their main target in Belgrade (as it will be for just about all the crews).
Germany were silver medalists in Tokyo with their double of Jason Osborne and Jonathan Rommelmann. With Osborne retiring from rowing in favour of professional cycling, Rommelmann has a new partner, Paul Leerkamp. He was U23 BLM4X World Champion in 2021 and raced in the LM2X with Arno Gaus last season finishing tenth. This season Leerkamp and Rommelmann have been a little inconsistent. They made the A-Final in Varese but were ninth at the Europeans and 12th in Lucerne.
Ukraine were seventh in Tokyo and won bronze at the 2022 World Championships and their crew of Stanislav Kovalov and Igor Khmara return for 2023. They have yet to show the speed that took them to the World Championship podium – their one race so far this season was in Lucerne where they were well off the pace in 16th. However, if they can get back to the sort of pace they showed in 2022, they will be serious contenders for the podium.
Other crews to watch include; Portugal (Afonso and Dinis Duarte Costa) 13th in Tokyo and winners of the B-Final at the 2022 Worlds; New Zealand (Christopher Stockley and Matt Dunham) were 11th in 2022 and this season raced once in Lucerne finishing eighth. The Kiwis last won a world championship medal in this event back in 2014 and it will require a major step on to make it back to the podium.
Predictions: Difficult to see Ireland being out-sprinted for a second time – O’Donovan and Mc Carthy to take the gold with Switzerland in silver and Italy bronze.
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