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: 5
2023 Champions: Madalina Beres, Maria Lehaci, Magdalena Rusu, Amalia Beres (Romania)
A disappointingly small field for an Olympic class event (only 2017’s entry was smaller). But, despite the small numbers it should provide a fascinating contest between the reigning champions from Romania and the World Cup winners from Great Britain.
Romania is unchanged from last season (Madalina Beres, Maria Lehaci, Magdalena Rusu, Amalia Beres). Not only did they win the Europeans but they also doubled-up to win the European W8 title as well. The world championships also saw them double-up, taking silver in the W4- and gold in the W8. All four of the crew also raced in the W8 at the Tokyo Olympics. They are also doubling-up in the W8 at these championships
Great Britain consists of double Olympic champion Helen Glover along with 2022 W4- World Champions Sam Redgrave and Rebecca Shorten. The fourth member of the crew is Esme Booth who spent the last couple of seasons racing in the W2- and doubling-up in the W8 helping both boats to qualify for Paris. GB won bronze last season (with Glover, Shorten, Heidi Long and Rowan McKellar). Their gold in Varese was, perhaps surprisingly, Glover’s first since winning the European W2- title in 2021 and also her first gold in any boat other than the W2- since her career began 14 years ago!
The Netherlands are the reigning World Champions, but they are resting their senior team this week and have instead sent a development squad to contest the Europeans. For the W4- this means a boat of Maartje Damen, Nika Johanna Vos, Ilse Kolkman and Willemijn Mulder. Despite being a development boat they have a decent amount of experience. Kolkman and Vos were world silver medallists in the W4X in 2022 and both Mulder and Damen are former U23 world champions. This line-up raced at Piediluco, beating two Italian boats on both days.
France come to Szeged with a crew that includes sisters Maya and Josephine Cornut. Maya, the elder sister, raced in this boat in 2023, finishing tenth. Josephine won bronze in the BW2- at the U23 World Championships last year. The rest of the crew are Pauline Rossignol and Emma Cornelis. Rossignol raced in the W2- at last year’s Europeans, placing tenth and Cornelis was in the world championship W2- that finished 19th.
The final crew in the event is Poland. They are a development crew stroked by 2023 U23 world champion Anna Potrzuska. She’s joined by former junior international Julia Hakobyan and former U23 international Julia Hakobyan along with international debutant Dominika Galka.
Prediction
The British looked, very, very good win winning in Varese and if they can repeat that performance they will be very difficult to beat. But Romania will pose a stiff challenge. I’m going for the British to take the gold ahead of Romania with the Netherlands a distant third.
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