Image credit: World Rowing
The first World Cup of any new season is often a bit of a tepid affair, with lots of straight finals or no races in some boat classes at all. But, this year, in Varese, it’s a different matter. Being Olympic year, and with the Final Olympic Qualifying Regatta just five weeks away, Varese has drawn a huge and high quality field.
So, as always, I’ll look at each boat class and pick out the main contenders.
Entries: 9
Great Britain will start 2024 as the overwhelming favourites; their crew of Ollie Wilkes, Dave Ambler, Matt Aldridge and Freddie Davidson are the reigning World Champions and are, in one line-up or another, unbeaten since the Tokyo Olympics.
The main challenge to the British in the M4- normally comes from Australia, but in Varese Australia have sent their “A” squad – a development team with LA, not Paris, on their minds. Their crew consists of Alex Wolf (sixth in the BM8 at the 2019 U23 World Championships), Hamish Wynn-Pope (14th in the JM2- in 2018), Fraser Miscamble (U23 silver medalist in the BM4- in 2023) and Charles Batrouney (sixth in the BM4- in 2022).
With the Australians unlikely to fill their traditional role of Brit-hunters, that job passes to the Italians. The home nation has two boats racing. ITA1 has the highly experienced line-up of Matteo Lodo, Giovanni Abagnale, Guiseppe Vicino and Nicholas Kohl. Lodo and Vicino were in the crew that won bronze in Tokyo and Rio and were World Champions way back in 2015. Abagnale won bronze in the M2- in Rio and then placed 11th in the same boat class in Tokyo. Kohl is the least experienced of the quartet as Varese marks his senior international debut after racing on the U23 team in 2018 and 2019. This crew won on both days at Piediluco, beating strong South African and Romanian crews on the second day.
ITA2 includes two of the crew that finished ninth last year, Alessandro Bonamoneta and Davide Verita’. They are joined by Nunzio Di Colandrea and Riccardo Peretti. Di Colandrea was U23 World Champion in 2021 and in 2022 rowed in the M4- that finished 13th. Peretti raced in the M1X at the Lucerne World Cup last year and also competed in the Coastal World Championships, placing 11th in the CMix2X.
The Netherlands finished in fourth in 2023 but start 2024 with just one member of that crew, strokeman Rik Rienks. Rienks was also in the boat in 2022 that won bronze at the World Championships. For 2024 Rienks is joined by Guus Mollee, Nelson Ritsema and Eli Brouwer. Mollee raced in the M8 that won silver at the 2023 World Championships and Ritsema competed in the M2- last season. He also raced in the four at the Tokyo Olympics in a crew that finished sixth. Brouwer is probably the least experienced of the quartet; the 23-year-old made his senior debut in 2022, racing at the first and third World Cups and last season he made one appearance on the World Cup circuit, finishing sixth in the M2- at World Cup 2.
Switzerland is unchanged from the crew that finished eighth last season, Joel Schuerch, Tim Roth, Patrick Brunner and Kai Schaeltze. Schuerch was in the crew that finished ninth in Tokyo and he and Roth were also in the M4- that reached the A-Final at the 2022 World Championships. Brunner and Schaeltze both raced in the M4X in 2022, finishing 11th.
Germany have always had a slightly complicated relationship with any men’s sweep rowing that isn’t the M8. It’s been over 20 years since they last won a World Championship medal in this event and they didn’t qualify the boat for Tokyo. If they want to compete in Paris they will also have to go via the FOQR. Their crew for Varese includes the experienced Malte Grossmann, who has been rowing in the M4- since 2019. He’s joined by Jasper Angl – who was in the M8 that finished fifth last year – along with two U23 internationals, Frederik Breuer (seventh in the BM2- in 2023) and Kasper Virnekaes (third in the BM8 last season). Both are making their senior international debuts in Varese.
Ireland finished 15th last season and two of that boat, Jack Dorney and John Kearney, return for 2023. They were also in the crew in 2022 that had a much better Championships, placing eighth overall. For 2024 Kearney and Dorney are joined by Ronan Byrne and Andrew Sheehan. Byrne is one of the most experienced men on the Irish team but all his experience, including racing in Tokyo, has come from sculling; Varese will be his first international sweep race. He also spent the tail end of the 2023 season racing coastal, including winning gold in the CMix2X. Sheehan is the youngest of the crew at just 21 years-of-age, but he already has three U23 World Championship medals to his credit, including silver in the BM1X in 2023. He made his senior international debut last season as part of the M4X that finished 13th.
The final two crews in the event are Denmark and Ukraine. The Danes return with three of the crew that finished 12th last year (Magnus Valbirk, Kaare Mortensen, Bastian Secher) along with newcomer Magnus Rathenborg (19th in the M2x at the 2023 Europeans). Ukraine come with half of the crew that finished 11th in 2023 (Oleh Kravchenko and Sergii Gryn). They are joined by the M2X from 2023, (Dmytro Hula and Oleksii Selivanov).
Prediction
This should be another straightforward victory for the British although Italy 1 may make it a little more interesting. GB in gold with ITA1 in silver and the Netherlands in bronze.
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