Image credit: World Rowing
Hot on the heels of World Cup 1 comes the European Championships, this year being held at Szeged, Hungary’s third largest city. It’s the first time this course has hosted a major senior championships. The European Olympic Qualifying Regatta is also being held at the same time (for the singles, light doubles and PR1 singles) which has impacted on the entries for the Euro Champs.
So here’s our look at the ones to watch in each of the Olympic-class boats.
Entries: 10
2023 Champions: Dominik Czaja, Mateusz Biskup, Miroslaw Zietarski, Fabian Baranski (Poland)
Poland are the reigning European Champions and have kept faith with the same line-up for the last couple of seasons, Dominik Czaja, Mateusz Biskup, Miroslaw Zietarski and Fabian Baranski. They are a very experienced, and successful crew. They were world champions in 2022 and also took European silver that year. In 2023, as well as wining the European title, they took bronze at the World Championships. All four raced at the Tokyo Olympics, Czaja and Baranski in the quad that finished fourth and Biksup and Zietarski in the M2x that placed sixth.
Italy finished one place ahead of the Poles at the 2023 world championships and they are unchanged from that line-up, which featured Nicolo’ Carucci, Andrea Panizza, Luca Chiumento and Giacomo Gentili. This quartet took bronze at the European’s last year and this season raced at their home World Cup in Varese, picking up the bronze medal.
Great Britain makes one change to the crew that finished fourth in 2023. Graeme Thomas comes in to replace George Bourne. Thomas won bronze in the M1X in 2022 but injury meant he missed the whole of the 2023 season. He’s one of the most experienced members of the British team having made his debut back in 2011. He partnered John Collins to fourth in the M2X at the Tokyo Olympics. Thomas joins Tom Barras (who also has a M1X world championship bronze medal and was in the quad which won GB’s first ever M4X Olympic medal in Tokyo), Callum Dixon and Matt Haywood. Both Barras and Haywood were in the M4X that won World Championship silver in 2022. They started their 2024 season in fine fashion, taking silver behind the Dutch at the Varese World Cup.
Fifth at the 2023 world championships were Switzerland. They also start 2024 with an unchanged line-up containing Dominic Condrau, Jan Plocek, Scott Baerlocher and Maurin Lange. This crew came together late in the season last year and the world championships was their first race in their final line-up and their fifth place was the best by a Swiss M4X since 2015. They had a solid race to open their 2024 season, placing fourth at the Varese World Cup.
The Netherlands won in Varese, but as with other events they have a development crew racing in Szeged. Jorn Salverda and Stijn Wieling raced in the M2X at the second World Cup last year. They are joined by World M8 silver medallist Michiel Mantel and Wibout Rustenburg, who raced in the single at World Cup 2 last year.
Estonia have some of the most experienced athletes across any event, with Allar Raja and Tonu Endrekson in the two and three seats. Both men have over 20 years’ experience on the senior international circuit and no doubt the 43-year-old Endrekson will be aiming to qualify for his sixth Olympic Games. They are joined by Mikhail Kushteyn and Johann Poolak. This line-up made the A-Final at both the European and world championships in 2022, but slipped back to eighth, and out of the Olympic qualifying places, at the 2023 worlds.
Ukraine has a strong tradition in this boat class, particularly at European level. This year they have two of the crew that finished 12th last year, Ivan Dovgodko and Olexandr Nadtoka. They are joined by two rowers from the 2023 M4-, Maksym Boklazhenko and Mykola Mazur. They competed in Varese but were unable to make the A-Final, ending up eighth.
Romania qualified this boat for Paris with a win in the B-Final at the 2023 world championships. However, for Szeged they only have one member of that crew in their line-up, Ioan Prundeanu. He’s joined by U23 silver medallist Cristian-Vasile Nicoara along with Bogdan-Sabin Baitoc who was in the fourth-placed M8 at the 2023 worlds and Florin-Bogdan Horodisteanu who raced the M1X at the final World Cup last year.
The final two crews in the event are the hosts, Hungary and Czechia. The Hungarians have a young crew with the U23 internationals, Mihaly Ujhelyi, Dominik Patrik Koncsik and Tamas Agoston Gerei along with senior international Kristof Acs (16th in the M2X at the 2022 world championships). Czechia has two of the crew that finished 16th at the world championships, Jan Potucek and Filip Zima. They are joined by Jan Cizek and Vaclav Baldrian who both raced in the M8 at the 2022 world championships.
Prediction
This has the makings of a three-way battle for the medals between Poland, Italy and Great Britain (with both Switzerland and Estonia snapping at their heels). I’m going for Poland to retain their title with the Italians in silver and GB in bronze.
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