Cover image: World Rowing / Benedict Tufnell
2022 Champions: Magdalena Rusu, Iuliana Buhus, Adriana Adam, Maria Tivodariu, Madalina Beres, Amalia Beres, Ioana Vrinceanu, Simona Radis, Simona Radis (Romania)
Entries: 8
Olympic qualifying places: 5
Romania are the reigning World Champions and they have only one change to their victorious 2022 crew (Roxana Angel replacing Simona Radis). This season they picked up where they left off in 2022 and produced a dominant win at the European Championships, winning by almost seven seconds ahead of Great Britain. In Lucerne things were a little different with the Romanians finishing at the back of a four-boat field, however they had changed half of their crew so it’s probably not worth reading too much into that loss (and the half that didn’t race the eight won in the 4-). As is usual with Romania they are doubling-up in both the W4- and W2-. With their full line-up back in the boat in Belgrade they will be very tough to beat.
Great Britain were runners-up to the Romanians at the Europeans, and they took another silver medal in Varese behind the Australians. In Lucerne they finally got their bows in front of the rest of the field and won GB’s first W8 gold medal since the European Championship of 2016. The crew includes Karen Bennett, the sole remaining member of the Rio silver medal W8. She and crew mate Harriet Taylor also raced in the W4- in Tokyo. GB also has two athletes doubling-up with Emily Ford and Esme Booth also racing in the W2-. The British will have taken a big confidence boost from their win in Lucerne, especially getting revenge on Australia who had beaten them in Varese.
Canada are the reigning Olympic Champions (their first championship gold medal in the W8 since 1992) and have four of that crew racing this season; Kasia Gruchalla-Wesierski, Avalon Wasteneys, Sydney Payne and Kristen Kit (cox). Also in the crew is fellow Olympian Jessica Sevick (sixth in the W2X in Tokyo). Last season they made the podium at the World Championships, collecting the bronze medal. The crew this season is largely unchanged from 2022 and so far in 2023 they have won bronze in Varese and silver in Lucerne.
Australia are also racing with a number of Tokyo Olympians onboard. Olympia Aldersey, Molly Goodman, Bronwyn Cox and Georgina Rowe were all in the W8 that finished fifth. The Aussies were fifth in the World last season but have made a number of changes for 2023 with just Rowe, Jacqueline Swick and Paige Barr remaining from the 2022 crew. They made a strong start to their 2023 season with a win in Varese and followed that up with a bronze medal behind GB and Canada in Lucerne.
The USA are the most successful nation in history in this event, having won the World title 11 times. However, in recent years, their dominance has been challenged. They last won the world championships back in 2018 and in 2022 they missed the podium entirely. They come into 2023 with a crew that has a mix of youth and experience. Four of the crew raced at the Tokyo Olympics, finishing fourth (Regina Salmons, Brooke Mooney, Charlotte Buck and Jessica Thoennes). The crew also includes three former U23s who make their senior debuts in Belgrade (Mary Mazzio-Manson, Emily Froehlich and Margaret Hedeman). The USA haven’t raced in this combination so far this season, but the W8 is such an iconic boat for the USA, we can expect them to be pretty quick.
These five crews look to be significantly faster than the remaining boats in the field (China, Germany and Italy) that it would be a major surprise if these crews didn’t take the Olympic qualification spots.
Italy raced at the Europeans and came away with a bronze medal from the four-boat event (Italy’s first W8 medal since the 2012 Europeans). They are a comparatively young and inexperienced crew, four of whom raced at the U23 World Championships last year and this year (Sofia Secoli, Anna Rossi, Alice Gnatta and Emanuele Capponi).
Germany finished fourth at the European Championships but have a completely different line-up racing in Belgrade. They have selected the silver medal BW8 from the U23 World Championships earlier this season to race in Belgrade. Sweep rowing has always been the “poor relation” to sculling in the German women’s team – they last won a senior World Championship W8 medal back in 2002 so it’s going to be interesting to see how their young U23 medalists fare in Belgrade and also if this is the beginning of a resurgence in German women’s sweep?
The final crew in the event is China. Their crew is based around four athletes who finished 12th in the W4- in Varese (Xiya Dong, Xiaohan Xie, Wen Yu and Hairong Zhang). The rest of the field are all making their international debuts in Varese so they are really an unknown quantity, but I doubt very much if they will be in contention for a top-five finish.
Predictions: With a full-strength Romania back in action in Belgrade they will be very tough to beat, however there is something about the British boat that makes me think they just may be able to do it. Great Britain in gold with Romania in silver and Canada to just get the better of Australia and the USA for the bronze.
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