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: 8
The Netherlands will come into the 2024 season as favourites. Ymjke Clevering and Veronique Meester are the reigning World Champions and were both members of the W4- that won silver at the Tokyo Olympics. They doubled-up in the W8 throughout 2022 and 2023, winning silver in both in 2022 and then gold and silver in 2023. The Dutch haven’t entered a W8 in Varese so it remains to be seen if Clevering and Meester continue to double-up.
Behind the Netherlands the next highest ranked crew from 2023 is Ireland, Aifric Keogh and Fiona Murtagh. They started the season in the W4-, the boat class in which they won Ireland’s first ever women’s Olympic medal in Tokyo. The four didn’t deliver as it had in 2021 so they switched to the pair for the World Championships, and their fourth placed-finish was the best result for an Irish W2-.
Fifth at the World Championships, another national best performance, were twins, Melita and Antonia Abrahams from Chile. They have been racing together since their junior days in 2014 and were U23 BW2- World Champions in 2017. In 2022 they won World Cup silver at the opening World Cup and in 2023 they won Chile’s first ever World Cup gold medal, taking the win in the W4- at the opening World Cup (along with Magdalena Jesus Nannig Rojas and Victoria Hostetter Wells).
One of the most experienced boats in the field is Denmark, Fie Udby Erichsen and Hedvig Rasmussen. 38-year-old Erichsen has been racing on the senior circuit since 2005 and is aiming for her fourth Olympics. Each time she’s had to qualify via the Final Olympic Qualifying Regatta, and Paris will be no different. But she seems to thrive on that pressure. In London she won silver in the W1X and followed that with ninth in Rio. At the Tokyo Games she and Rasmussen finished eighth. Rasmussen will be aiming for her third Olympics and has an Olympic bronze medal in this boat class from Rio (with partner Anne Andersen).
Great Britain has a new look pairing for 2024, Rebecca Edwards and Chloe Brew. Edwards, from Northern Ireland, joined the GB team in 2019 and rowed in the W8 at the Tokyo Olympics. She was also part of the W8 that finished fourth at the 2023 World Championships (qualifying the boat for Paris). Brew won silver in the U23 BW8 in 2016 and went on to race in the W8 in Tokyo. She only made one appearance in 2023 due to injury, racing as a second GB pair at the Lucerne World Cup. With qualification secured in this boat class this pair will be looking for a solid performance to build on through the season.
The remaining crews are Croatia, Germany and Italy, all of whom will be heading to the FOQR to try and get one of the two remaining spots for Paris. Croatia has the Jurkovic twins, Ivana and Josipa. They won gold at the opening World Cup of the 2021 season but narrowly missed qualifying for the Olympics at the 2021 FOQR. They ended the 2021 season on a high with silver at the final World Cup and U23 World Championship gold. In 2022 they made the A-Final each time they raced, culminating in a sixth placed-finish at the World Championships. Last season, they placed fourth at the Europeans but were forced to withdraw from the Worlds due to illness.
Germany is represented by Lena Sarassa and Hannah Reif. They raced together last season reaching the A-Final at the Europeans and World Cup 2 but ended up a somewhat disappointing 14th at the World Championships.
The final crew in the event are the young Italian combination of Sofia Secoli and Anna Rossi. Secoli rowed in the W8 that won bronze at the European Championships in 2023 and then took fourth in the BW4+ at the U23 World Championships. Rossi makes her senior debut in Varese, having raced on the U23 team in 2022, culminating in a silver medal in the BW4+ at the U23 World Championships.
Prediction
Hard to see anyone beating the Netherlands, and I’ll go for Ireland in silver and Great Britain in bronze.
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