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: 9
2023 Champions: Ancutar Bodnar and Simona Radis (Romania)
The Romanians are one of the most outstanding crews in world rowing at the moment. They make their 2024 debuts on the back of a winning streak that stretches back 28 races. Ancutar Bodnar and Simona Radis are the defending Olympic, World and European champions and have looked untouchable for the last several seasons. The last time they lost a race was at the 2019 World Championships where they finished runners-up to the Kiwis. It’s going to take something special to break the Romanians winning streak.
Runners-up to the Romanians at both the European and World Championships last year was Lithuania, Donate Karaliene and Dovile Rimkute. 34-year-old Karaliene will be aiming for her fourth Olympic Games. She, and partner Milda Valciukaite, won bronze in Rio and then took fourth in Tokyo. She and 22-year-old Rimkute raced together at the 2022 Europeans, finishing fourth. Last year they raced at three regattas – Europeans, World Cup III and Worlds – winning the silver medal on each occasion.
Ireland’s Zoe Hyde and Alison Bergin were one of the surprise crews of the 2023 season. Bergin won silver in the BW1X at the U23 World Championships last year and then went onto race in the double with Hyde at the senior World Championships, just missing the podium. Hyde raced with Sanita Puspure in the double in 2022, winning Ireland’s first ever W2X championship medal with a bronze behind Romania and the Netherlands. After finishing sixth at the Europeans with Puspure last season, she formed a new partnership with Bergin to take fourth.
Italy were fourth at the opening World Cup in Varese, however for Szeged they have tweaked their line-up. Clara Guerra moves out of the boat and Stefania Buttignon comes in to join Stefania Gobbi. Buttignon is an unusual athlete in that she switches between lightweight and open weight. In Varese she raced in the LW2X that finished third, just 2/100th behind their compatriots. Whether this means the second place LW2x will contest the FOQR remains to be seen, and it may be that the Italians are trying different combinations inn the W2X before deciding who to send to Lucerne.
One of the most interesting new combinations at Varese were the Swiss, Nina Wettstein and Jeanine Gmelin. They made the A-Final at the World Cup, finishing fifth. Gmelin, the 2017 W1X World Champion, stepped away from the sport at the end of the 2022 season. She’s the first Swiss woman to win the W1X title and also made the A-Final at both the Rio and Tokyo Olympics. Wettstein is a former U23 World Champion and made her senior debut in 2022. She raced in the W2X last season with Fabienne Schweizer, but their 12th place wasn’t good enough to secure Olympic qualification.
Great Britain has struggled in the last few years to find a combination that can regularly challenge for A-Finals and medals. The last time GB won a medal in this boat class at a championship regatta was bronze at the 2021 Europeans. For Szeged they have put together a new combination of Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne and Becky Wilde. Hodgkins-Byrne makes her first appearance in a GB boat since finishing seventh in the W4X at the Tokyo Olympics. Wilde, a former international swimmer, is a product of the World Class start programme. She raced at the European U23 Championships in 2019, but Szeged will be her first senior international appearance. This boat has a bit of a “we’ll see how it goes” feel about it. A good performance may see them head to the FOQR, but it may be a case of using these championships to ease Hodgkins-Byrne back into international racing and at the same time blood Wilde.
Norwegian women’s sculling is on a high after winning medals in both the W1X and W2X in Varese, which is the first time they had claimed a medal in either event. In the W2X Thea Helseth won silver with Marie Rorvik and in the W1X Inger Kavile won bronze. For Szeged Kavile moves into the double and it’s going to be interesting to see if this combination works better than the established Helseth/Rorvik duo (who qualified the boat for Paris with a ninth-placed finish last year).
The final two crews racing are Czechia and Hungary. The Czechs race with Anna Santruckova and Lenka Luksova. Santrukova was sixth in the BW1X at the U23 World Championships last year and Luksova was Czechia’s representative in the W1x at the 2023 World Championships where she finished 21st. Hungary is represented by Vivian Preil and Janka Zsiros. Priel last raced at the 222 Europeans and Zsiros makes her senior debut after racing at the 2022 U23 World Championships.
Prediction
It would be a big, big surprise if the Romanians don’t win, and I can’t really see that happening. But it should be a good contest for the silver and bronze with the Lithuanians, Italians, Irish, Swiss and Norwegians all in the mix. I’m picking Romania in gold with Lithuania in silver and the Irish to take the bronze.
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