Image credit: World Rowing
The second World Rowing Cup of the year promises so much. Our European contenders, who we have already seen race on one, if not two, occasions this year meet their rivals from across continents as Australia, New Zealand, the USA and a number of other heavy-hitting global players converge on Lucerne in what will be many crews’ final race before the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. As always, JRN are previewing every single event in-depth as we take another enormous step forward towards the crowning moment of our sport.
Entries: 5
This Olympiad, this event has been dominated by the Great Britain crew, having won all but one of the events they’ve lined up in since returning from Tokyo, including both world championships along the way. The crew returns unchanged this season and have continued their winning ways, picking up top honours at both the first World Rowing Cup in Varese as well as the European championships in Szeged. It was on this lake in 2023 where they suffered the only blemish on their perfect record so the crew will be keen to avoid it becoming a ‘cursed’ course but with the Olympics several months away, they will also be wary of peaking too soon.
The team to inflict that blemish was the Australian eight. Back in Europe for the first time this season, the crew has slight changes to the line-up as Spencer Turrin and Jack Hargreaves bolster the crew, stepping across from the four that finished fifth at the Belgrade world championships. The Australian selectors will be hoping that this can encourage the crew back to the world-beating speed they demonstrated at the third World Rowing Cup regatta last season, before they fell back to third at the world championships, around a length off the British. With the Olympics on the horizon, the result here is not at the front of their mind but if they can get their noses towards the front of this top-quality field they will carry that confidence all the way to the Olympics.
The third nation that has been a leading light in this shortened Olympiad in the men’s eight is the Netherlands. They too have brought re-enforcements across from the four in order to be a thorn in the British side. Winning silver at both world championships certainly presents them as the most likely to take the crown off the Brits, but executing that is a different story. This season they were just over two seconds behind the British as they won silver at the first World Rowing Cup, before skipping the European championships in favour of an altitude camp in Austria. They will be hoping the gains from Linz carry over to the race this weekend as they aim to land their first blow to the British this cycle.
After having a very difficult time for the past few years, the fearsome Deutschland-Achter is beginning to show signs of its former glory as the crew from Germany has medalled in both of its races so far this season. A bronze in Varese was promoted to a silver at the European championships in the absence of the Dutch. While this crew is not of the quality of their 2012-era equivalents, the additions of Laurits Follert and stroke seat Hannes Ocik seem to have made a real improvement on the crew that finished fifth both here and in Belgrade last year. With an (almost) full strength field this weekend, they will be able to see if this improvement carries on with the inclusion of some non-European entries.
The only crew in the entry who will double up from racing earlier in the week at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta is the crew from the United States, who successfully navigated the last-chance regatta earlier this week. Last season was not ideal as they missed out on an automatic qualification for the Olympics at the world championships, despite some crew members suggesting they would be headed home with gold. Due to the unique selection structures of the US crew, they have more changes than most – including three athletes who didn’t race at all internationally last season. This leaves them as somewhat of a wildcard as if they have been able to make it click under the watchful eye of Mike Callahan, usually the men’s head coach at the University of Washington, they may shock the field.
Prediction
While I may be accused of nationalistic fervour, I just don’t see anyone getting past the Great Britain crew here. For silver and bronze, I have no doubts that it will be Australia and the Netherlands, but the order is more in question. My picks would be for the Dutch to get the better of the Aussies
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