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
The Netherlands come into Varese as the reigning World Champions and they have an unchanged line-up for 2024 in Marloes Oldenburg, Hermijntje Drenth, Tinka Offereins and Benthe Boonstra. This quartet also raced in 2022 where they won silver (doubling-up in the W8 which also took silver).
Great Britain makes up 1/3 of the entries in this event with their W8 doubling-up as GBR2 and GBR3. GBR1 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), but will be hoping to start their Olympic season with gold (which, amazingly, would be Glover’s first in a boat which wasn’t the pair in a career that stretches back to 2010).
GBR2 is Heidi Long, Rowan McKellar, Holly Dunford and Emily Ford. As mentioned above, Long and McKellar raced in the W4- in 2022 that won both the European and World titles and then took bronze in 2023. Ford was Booth’s pairs partner throughout 2022 and 2023. Dunford makes her senior debut after studying at Washington University and winning U23 gold in the BW4- in 2021.
GBR3 is Harriet Taylor, Annie Campbell-Orde, Lauren Irwin and Eve Stewart. Taylor, Campbell-Orde and Irwin raced in the W8 in 2022 and 2023. Stewart makes her debut for Great Britain having grown up in the Netherlands and racing for the Dutch, winning a silver medal in the U23 BW8 in 2018 and reaching the A-Final in the W2- at the Tokyo Final Olympic Qualifying Regatta.
Ireland has had a very strong crew in this event in the last few seasons. They took bronze at the Tokyo Olympics and have two of that crew racing this season, Eimear Lambe and Emily Hegarty. They are joined by Natalie Long (who was in the W4- that won silver at the 2022 Europeans) and Imogen Magner. All but Hegarty were in this boat for the 2023 World Championships (along with Sanita Puspure) but were somewhat disappointed with only managing ninth, a result which, crucially, saw them miss qualification for Paris.
Denmark will also be headed to the Final Olympic Qualifying Regatta. They have the same line-up that finished one place ahead of the Irish last year (and one place off qualifying), Astrid Steensberg, Julie Poulsen, Frida Sanggaard Nielsen and Marie Skytte Hauberg Johannesen. This quartet also raced in 2022 where they won the B-Final (ahead of New Zealand who reversed that result in 2023 to claim the final Olympic qualifying spot).
Australia have entered two boats from their “Project LA” squad. AUS1 is Eleanor Price and Ella Bramwell (who raced in the W8 in 2022), Georgie Gleeson (bronze medallist in the W8 in 2023) and U23 bronze medallist Sarah Marriott. AUS2 is less experienced with all four athletes making their senior debuts. Maddy Wilson and Emily Sheppard were both part of the U23 team in 2023, Wilson finishing sixth in the BLW4X and Sheppard winning gold in the BW4+. Sarah Tisdall is another U23 medallist, winning bronze in the BW4+ in 2019. The fourth member of the crew is debutant Laura Foley from Melbourne University Boat Club.
The final crew in the event is Spain. They have three of the crew that finished 13th last season, Izaskun Echaniz Rodriguez, Olivia Del Castillo and Iria Jarama Diaz. The final member of the crew is Rocio Lao Sanchez (17th in the LW2X last season).
Prediction
This should be a great showdown between the Dutch and British for gold and silver and both crews will be wanting to lay down a marker at the start of Olympic season. There are also several races within a race; the Danes and Irish will be sizing each other up ahead of the FOQR and all three of the British crews will want bragging rights over their team mates. I’m going for the Netherlands in gold with GBR1 in silver and Ireland in bronze (with the Danes and the remaining two GB crews rounding out the top 6).
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