Cover image: World Rowing / Benedict Tufnell
Reigning Champions: Imogen Grant and Emily Craig (Great Britain)
Entries: 21
Olympic Qualifying places: 7
Great Britain are the defending champions and are also the standout crew this season. Imogen Grant and Emily Craig are unbeaten in this event since their agonising fourth-place at the Tokyo Olympics. Renowned for their impeccable technique, they have become the benchmark for all other crews in this event. Their biggest challenge so far this season came from the USA, Michelle Sechser and Molly Reckford, who the British beat by just 8/100th of a second in Varese. This US combination are also the world championship silver medalists from 2022 and were fifth in Tokyo. However, somewhat surprisingly, the US has changed their line-up for Belgrade. Reckford has been replaced by Mary Jones. Jones was the US LW1X at last year’s Worlds and finished tenth. She also raced in a second US LW2X in Varese with Audrianna Boersen, finishing seventh. The US clearly think the Sechser/Jones combination is faster despite Sechser and Reckford being the more established and the crew that has come closest to defeating the British. Time will tell if this was the right decision.
Bronze medalists at last year’s World Championships was Ireland (their first World Championship medal in this event). Margaret Cremen and Aiofe Casey return for 2023. They were the Irish LW2X at the Tokyo Olympics, placing eighth. This season, they haven’t quite recaptured their medal-winning form of 2022 and have recorded two fifth-places at the Europeans and then Lucerne. However, with a decent preparation heading into Belgrade, they can’t be discounted for a podium place.
Olympic silver medalists Claire Bove and Laura Tarantola of France have been racing together since 2017 and in that time, they’ve collected a number of European medals as well as the Olympic silver. However, they are yet to make the podium at the World Championships (although Tarantola was LW1X World Champion in 2018). This season, they picked up bronze at the Europeans and again in Varese. They finished the World Cup series with fourth in Lucerne.
One of the most exciting crews on the circuit at the moment is Greece. 17-year-old Dimitra Eleni Kontou is a prodigious talent. U23 BLW1X World Champion this year, she raced at the 2022 World Championships with Evangelia Anastasiadou making the A-Final. This season she’s partnered with Zoi Fitsiou. She was fifth in the LW1X last season and was also European LW1X silver medalist. This season the Greeks have won silver at the Europeans and bronze in Lucerne.
As mentioned above in the W2X preview, the entry from Italy is somewhat unusual as Federica Cesarini is entered in both the W2x and LW2X events (and with different partners). Given she and her partner in the LW2X, Silvia Crosio, have been racing together all season, it seems the LW2x entry will be the more likely of the two to actually happen, but we’ll have to see. Cesarini (with partner Valentina Rodini) won gold in Tokyo. In 2022 Cesarini and Rodini won European bronze but were off the pace at the World Championships, finishing 11th. Crosio won the U23 World Championships in 2021 and joined Cesarini in the LW2X at the start of this season. So far, they have recorded seventh at the Europeans and sixth in Lucerne.
Another new combination for 2023 is New Zealand’s Shannon Cox and Jackie Kiddle. Kiddle was in the crew (with Zoe McBride) that won the World Championships in 2019. With McBride retiring from rowing in 2020, Kiddle formed a new partnership with Rachel Kennedy, finishing ninth in 2022 (Kiddle also doubled-up in the LW1x, winning the bronze medal). Her partner for 2023 is Shannon Cox. She made her international debut this season and in their first race together they reached the A-Final in Lucerne. Undoubtedly a crew with a lot of potential, they will be focusing on achieving a top-seven finish rather than a medal.
Silver medalists in Lucerne were Romania. Ionela Cozmuic and Mariana-Laura Dumitru have been put together fairly late in the season – their one and only race together was in Lucerne – but taking silver isn’t a bad start! Cozmuic was in the LW2X that made the A-Final in Tokyo and since the Olympics has mainly been racing in the LW1X, winning European and World Championship gold in 2022. This season, she won another LW1X European title before moving into the double for Lucerne. Dumitru, who turned 20 in August, made her senior debut in Lucerne, having raced the BLW1X at the U23 World Championships in July.
Switzerland has a well-established pairing of Patricia Merz and Frederique Rol. This duo won the B-Final at the Olympic Games and last season placed fifth at both the European and World Championships. They opened their 2023 campaign with gold at the first World Cup (Switzerland’s first LW2X win). They followed that up with sixth at the Europeans and ninth in Lucerne. They are another crew whose focus will be trying to secure Olympic qualification.
Other crews to watch include Austria (Louisa Altenhuber and Lara Tiefenthaler) silver medalists at the first World Cup (Austria’s first medal in this event since 2009) and eighth at the Europeans; Canada’s Henley winners Jill Moffatt and Jennifer Casson were 12th in Tokyo and B-Final winners in 2022 alongside a fifth-place in Varese and seventh in Lucerne; China’s Xiuping Qiu and Jiaqi Zou finished second in the B-Final at the 2022 Worlds and have raced once so far this season, placing fourth in Varese. The final crew to mention is Poland. Katarzyna Welna and Martyna Radosz are a new combination this season and have shown good promise with fourth at the Europeans and eighth in Lucerne.
Predictions: Great Britain are the outstanding crew in this event and look very hard to beat. It remains to be seen if the tweaks the USA have made can take them past the British. GB in gold, Romania in silver with the USA in bronze.
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