Image Credit: World Rowing
With the Olympics done and dusted, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the international rowing season is done and dusted. But no, there’s still one more outing; the World Rowing Championships. This isn’t a full programme World Rowing Championships however – it’s just for lightweight and para-rowing events that weren’t included in the Olympic/Paralympic programmes. For the first time since 2016, these are being combined with a full programme age group world championships at both U19 and U23 levels – the so-called “Mega Worlds”.
The 2024 World Rowing Championships are being hosted by St. Catharines, Canada, the venue for the annual Royal Canadian Henley, who are hosting a senior World Rowing event for the first time since the 1999 World Rowing Championships.
The senior worlds offered events in the Lwt1X, Lwt2-, Lwt4X, PR2 1X and PR3 2- for both men and women, however there were no entries for the LW4X and only two entries for the PR3 M2-.
So, without further ado here’s a look at those crews who have entered.
Entries: 4
2023 Champions: Italy (Luca Borgonovo, Nicolo’ Demiliani, Pietro Ruta, Matteo Tonelli)
This is one of the few events that actually has more entries than in 2023 (when there was just three). Leading the field will most likely be the German combination of Tim Streib, Moritz Marchart, Fabio Kress and Joachim Agne. Kress and Agne were members of the LM4X that won silver last season and bronze in 2022. Agne was also in the LM4X back in 2018 that won the world championships and Kress was U23 BLM1X world champion in 2021. Both Streib and Marchart make their senior debuts; Streib won silver at the U23 world championships in 2022 and 2023 and Marchart, a graduate of Hobart & Williams College in the USA, has a silver medal from the 2023 Coastal World Championships.
Chasing the Germans will most likely be Denmark, Magnus Oddershede, Ramus Lind, Johan Poulsen and Marcus Villiam Lyngesen. Oddershede and Poulsen were both members of the LM4X that won gold at the second World Rowing Cup in 2022 and then went on to finish fifth at the U23 world championships. Lind is the most experienced of the quartet – he missed out on Olympic qualification in the LM2X at the FOQR this season and in 2023 won bronze at the U23’s in the BLM1X and then went on to finish 13th at the senior worlds. Lyngesen makes his senior debut, having raced in for the U23 team back in 2021.
Mexico’s crew includes Paris Olympian, Miguel Carbello Nieto. He was tenth in the LM2X (with partner Alexis Lopez Garcia who is racing in the LM1X in Canada). Joining Carbello Nieto are Marco Antonio Velazquez Ugalde and Rafael Alejandro Mejia Gutierrez who raced together in the LM2X at the Poznan World Rowing Cup this season, winning the C-Final. The final member of the crew is Ricardo Daniel de la Rosa Vanegas who was 17th in the LM1X at the 2023 worlds and this season won the LM1X B-Final in Poznan.
The final crew in the event is the USA, with Casey Howsall, Ian Richardson, James Mccullough and Jasper Liu. Howsall and Richardson were both members of the light quad that finished third out of three boats at the 2023 worlds. Mccullough was the LM1X representative for the USA at the 2022 world championships, placing 17th and in 2023 he raced with Zachary Heese in the LM2X, finishing 19th. Liu raced in the LM4X at the 2019 world championships, winning the B-Final and missed qualification for the Tokyo Olympics at the FOQR. In 2022 Liu raced with Heese at worlds, placing 13th.
Prediction
Germany in gold with Denmark in silver and Mexico in bronze.
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