Cover image: World Rowing / Benedict Tufnell
Men’s Pair
Entries: 17
Current U23 World Champion: South Africa (Bonhage-Koen, Baxter)
The only men’s sweep event not won by the British twelve months ago yet the South Africans have not sent a pair to defend their championship. In their absence, the favourites for this event has to be the British combination. Harry Geffen and Miles Beeson have been the stern pair in the Yale first eight all year who won at the Eastern Sprints. The two both have pedigree on the international stage as Geffen was victorious in the eight last year, while Beeson has the opportunity to complete his set of U23 victories, having won in the eight and the four in 2021 and 2022 respectively.
Other notable entries are the Vicino brothers from Italy who made the A Final in the pair last year at the Junior Level after winning gold in the coxed four the previous year. This year they have been racing up in the senior division in just their first year outside the junior ranks, racing in the Italian Four at the second of the World Cup series at Varese.
The most experienced crew is that from Austria with their crew of Fabian Gillhofer and Vitus Haidder, having both been to the U23 Championships twice before. They will be wanting to improve as neither of them have ever finished better than eighth place.
The host nation, Bulgaria will have a lot of their hopes pinned on this event with their crew of Tsvetomir Malinov and Ivan Yankulov having raced together extensively so far in their rowing career. In 2021 they placed fourth at the Junior Championships on this course, while they won the C-Final in last year’s U23 Championship.
This event, more than most, offers the first international opportunities for some. The crews from Australia, Canada, China, New Zealand and Chinese Taipei have no athletes that have ever raced on the world stage.
Another noteworthy entry is labelled as “Independent Neutral Athletes”. This pairing is from Belarus, which can no longer be represented following sanctions relating to the invasion of Ukraine. This crew is the duo of Dzianis Klimiato and Aliaksandr Yaskel who made up half of the four that placed fourth at the 2021 U23 World Rowing Championship. How they have progressed in the intervening two years of turmoil will be interesting to see if they can compete in the pair.
Prediction: For me it is hard to look past the British combination from Yale University. They have been rowing together for some time now and their first venture in the pair at Henley lasted all the way until Saturday, falling only to the British Senior Pair by two and a half lengths.
Men’s Coxed Four
Entries: 9
Current U23 World Champion: Great Britain (Pearson, Prosser, Hinves, Turnell, Denegri)
As the only non-Olympic event offered to Heavyweights, the coxed four offers an opportunity for nations to grant experience to newer members of the set up. France, New Zealand and the United States, for example, have no rowers in this event who have made a world-level appearance before.
For other countries, the coxed four is an event that gets targeted in its own right. The Italians in 2021 had great success in the discipline, winning at both Junior and U23 levels. This year’s crew contains some of that formula as two of the junior boat will join the cox of the under-23s in an attempt to replicate their result.
Germany, too, are boating a line-up with significant pedigree with three of the five on board having previously been junior world champions. Many of the crew have since gone on to gain U23 experience but they are still hungry to win their first medal on this stage.
The Romanian crew is another one with significant experience as all four rowers competed in both the 2021 and 2022 Junior Rowing Championships. They all move up to U23 for the first time.
British Rowing have sent a strong crew to defend their title in this event with a mixture of junior medalists and international newcomers drawn from high performance programs in the UK and the US. Cambridge star Oliver Parish is the only returning U23 after making the A-Final in the pair twelve months ago.
Prediction: I think this is one for the continental Europeans; Italy and Germany both have selected line-ups which have clear intention of winning and my pick is for the Italians to make good and replicate their victory from twenty-four months ago.
Men’s Coxless Four
Entries: 14
Current U23 World Champion: Great Britain (Darlow, Beeson, Tarczy, De Graaf)
The defending champions from Great Britain have an all-changed line up from twelve months ago but there is no drop in prestige. Theo Bell and Jake Wincomb join from the eight that was victorious in Varese whilst Iwan Hadfield has stroked the University of California, Berkeley to two national championships on the US collegiate circuit since winning bronze in this event two years ago. This crew also includes James Forward, an Oxford Blue, who makes his world-level debut after winning a pair of bronze medals in the quad at the Coupe de le Jeunesse in 2019.
Another nation and crew that has a strong reputation is Germany. This boat is made up of the junior pair that won bronze twelve months ago alongside Paul Emil Scholtz who moves across from the U23 eight that placed fourth. Most intriguing of all is Tom Tewes who has stepped down from an under-performing senior eight for his final year of U23 eligibility. How this crew will come together looking towards Los Angeles may be important for the future of German Rowing.
Another crew with senior internationals is from France. Armand Pfister was in the four at the 2022 World Rowing Championships and then rowed in the pair with Florian Ludwig at the European Championships this Spring. They are both in this four which has competed already as a unit at World Cup Two in Varese, placing ninth in the open senior field.
Similarly, the Romanian outfit raced at the third world cup in Lucerne, Switzerland. Winners of the B-Final on the Rotsee, the crew has previous on the global stage. Bow seat and stroke seat won the pair together at the 2021 World Junior Championships while the middle pair won bronze at U23 level in 2022. Their success together looks promising for a run at the medals in Plovdiv.
Another group who have shared former glory are the Danish boat. Three of the four won silver in Varese at junior level in 2022. They are joined by Caspar Pederson, who is more experienced at this level having made the B-Final in the pair at the U23 Championships in Varese last summer. This group will be wanting to make a splash and with the support of Pederson they may be eyeing a medal in Bulgaria.
There are plenty more intriguing entries into this event: three of the Polish eight that made the A-Final last year, the Canadian four from World Cup Three and a Chinese crew of debutants whose oldest member is 19 among many others.
Prediction: The quality of the British line-up in this event is quite astounding, drawing from the first eights of Oxford, Brookes, Princeton and California. I struggle to see how any group will be able to match them in Plovdiv.
Men’s Eight
Entries: 9
Current U23 World Champion: Great Britain (Workman, Bell, Prior, Heywood, Horncastle, O’Sullivan, Wincomb, Geffen, Cockle)
Having won the last two editions of this race, the crew from Great Britain would naturally assume the mantle of favourites to make it three in a row but the crew coming out of Caversham lacks the experience of some of their competitors. Luca Ferraro was stroke seat in the victorious light blue boat on the Tideway in March but is the only man in this boat to have competed at this level before. Seven of the crew will make their world-level debut this weekend and this will be a major test of the British Rowing Machine as to how this crew with strong domestic results will shake out on the second largest stage in World Rowing.
By contrast, the United States boat is brimming with experience. Second place to the British in each of the last two years, the Americans have a line-up desperate to go one better than before. No one typifies this more than Jacob Hudgins who has three World Rowing Silver medals in the eight, two of those at Under-23 level.
Another crew with great experience is the line-up from Romania who have all been here before. Three of the quad and one of the four from last year have been imported into this eight which seems somewhat of a priority for the Bucharest setup.
The Australian eight was selected in New Jersey after a trial from among their US-based crews. It contains half of the crew that picked up the bronze medal twelve months ago combined with four rowers making their international debuts.
Germany’s senior squad is in somewhat of a rebuilding cycle and they will be hoping that this eight will be able to provide some hope for the federation. The crew list would suggest there is some level of potential in this crew. A few junior medalists from years gone by are joining up with athletes from all three Olympic sweep disciplines at the U23 level twelve months ago, including the eight which placed fourth in this category.
The other European powerhouses of Italy and the Netherlands have entries in the event though neither have a line-up which jumps off the page. Czech Republic and Estonia round out the entry list with very similar crews to what we have seen before. The Czech actually raced at World Cup 2 in this line-up, finishing well off the pace of the senior boats they were competing against.
Prediction: Given the experience in their shell and the hunger that two successive second-place finishes build, I would expect the crew from the United States to come out on top.
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