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: 11
2023 Champions: Daryna Verkhogliad, Nataliia Dovgodko, Anastasiia Kozhenkova, Kateryna Dudchenko (Ukraine)
Ukraine return to 2024 with the same line-up that won the title last season, Daryna Verkhogliad, Nataliia Dovgodko, Anastasiia Kozhenkova, Kateryna Dudchenko. However, despite winning the European title, they ended the 2023 season on a disappointing note, finishing eighth and missing that vital Olympic qualifying spot. This means they will need to compete at the Final Olympic Qualifying Regatta in Lucerne next month. They made a good start to their 2024 campaign with a win at the Varese World Cup.
Great Britain are the reigning world champions and have the same line-up racing in Szeged, Lauren Henry, Hannah Scott, Lola Anderson and Georgie Brayshaw. They didn’t have the best of starts to their 2024 season, missing the podium at the Varese World Cup. They will be looking to get back on the podium and will be wanting to reclaim the title they won for the first time ever in 2022.
Bronze medallists in Varese were Germany, Maren Voelz, Lisa Gutfleisch, Leonie Menzel and Pia Greiten. Germany’s seventh place at the 2023 world championships grabbed the final Olympic qualification spot although only Gutfleisch remains from that crew. She’s joined by Greiten (sixth in the W2X in 2022), along with last year’s 14th-placed W2X of Menzel and Voelz. As with the men’s quad, the women have struggled somewhat since winning the Olympic title in Rio, only once making the world championship podium (in 2017) in an event they used to dominate (they made the podium at every World and Olympics from 1985 to 2016).
Italy has an interesting line-up. Stefania Gobbi is doubling-up in the W2X and Valentina Rodini is the reigning LW2X Olympic Champion and won silver in that boat class at the Varese World Cup. Also in the crew is Clara Guerra and Valentina Iseppi. Gobbi and Guerra raced the W2X in Varese that finished fourth. Iseppi is the only member of the crew that raced in this boat at the first World Cup. It definitely looks like Italy is playing around with their line-ups across all of their women’s sculling boats with only the W2X having already qualified for Paris. It’s going to be interesting to see how this combination gets on.
Fifth in Lucerne was Switzerland. They were fourth in 2023 and make one change to that boat for 2024. Sofia Meakin comes in to replace Pascale Walker. Meakin raced in the W2X last season, placing 16th She joins Fabienne Schweizer, Celia Dupre and Lisa Loetscher. Their fourth place last year secured Switzerland’s first ever Olympic qualification in this boat class.
France is another nation that will be heading to the Final Olympic Qualifying Regatta. They have three of the crew that finished 12th last year, Audrey Feutrie, Helene Lefebvre and Jeanne Roche. The fourth member of the crew is Elodie Ravera-Scaramozzino. She raced in the W2X at the Tokyo Olympics and spent part of the 2023 season racing in the Beach Sprints, winning a silver medal in the CW1X.
Romania has qualified this boat for Paris after finishing sixth in 2023. However, for Szeged, their boat only includes one of that 2023 crew, Emanuela-Ioana Ciotau. She’s joined by Alexandra Ungureanu with whom she won the U23 world title in 2023. Also in the crew is the LW2X world bronze medallist Mariana-Laura Dumitru and Ioana-Madalina Morosan who was Romania’s representative in the W1X last season.
The Netherlands crew for Szeged is made up of members of their development squad. In the bow is Lisa Bruijnincx who won the U23 world title in this boat class in 2022 and in the stroke seat is U23 bronze medallist Claire De Kok. In the two seat is Lisanne Van Der Lelij from the Orca club; she won silver in the W8 at the FISU World University Games. At three is Margot Leeuwenburgh, a Henley Women’s Regatta winner who also raced at the second World Cup last season. All four of this crew raced in the eight that took on the Cambridge Blue Boat in the run-up to this year’s Boat Race.
The final three crews in the event are Czechia, Lithuania and Poland. Czechia has three of the crew that raced at the 2023 World Championships, Eliska Podrazilova, Marketa Nedelova and Alzbeta Zavadilova. The final member of the crew is Michala Pospisilova who was 19th in the W2X in 2023.
Lithuania has an U23 crew racing at these championships. Saule Kryzeviciute, Raminta Morkunaite and Ugne Juzenaite were in the fifth-placed BW4X last season and the stroke woman is Martyna Kazlauskaite who won the U23 BW2- world title last season. Poland’s crew includes Tokyo silver medallist Marta Wieliczko. She leads a young crew of U23 internationals, including U23 world champion Barbara Jechorek along with Dominika Baranowska and teenager Anna Khlibenko.
Prediction
I’m going out on a limb a little bit and picking GB to return to form and take the gold with Ukraine in silver and Germany in bronze.
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