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: 9
Following their absence from the European championships, The Netherlands return to the world stage. Melvin Twellaar and Stefan Broenink are one of the strongest crews in rowing at the moment, having lit up the double sculls last year where a bronze medal at the 2023 Europeans was their only damp spot. This year they’ve picked up from where they left off, winning the first World Rowing Cup in Lucerne. The Dutch are back from training camp and looking to add another win to their collection.
Following the announcement that the Sinkovic brothers were moving back to the pair, the Italians will have been licking their lips at the opportunity to solidify their position on world podiums. Despite placing fourth at the world championships last year, Luca Rambaldi and Matteo Sartori, kicked off their season with a silver medal at the first World Rowing Cup but come the Euros, they had to settle for fourth, significantly off the pace of winners, Romania. The latter are interestingly not attending the regatta in Lucerne so we won’t get to see them take on the Dutch establishment.
Over in Szeged we also got to see the exciting Spanish combination of Aleix Garcia I Pujolar and Rodrigo Conde Romero launch their international campaign. In 2022, they set the world alight, winning silver at both the European and world championships but they dipped a little last year, placing fifth at both European and world level. Importantly though, they still got themselves qualified for the Olympics. So far in 2024, they have restored their status of European silver medalists and sights will be set on cementing that this weekend.
Elsewhere we have the Irish and the French. The combination of Daire Lynch and Philip Doyle are the world bronze medalists and were the closest crew to the Dutch, barring the Croatians, in Belgrade last year. World Rowing Cup I earlier this year saw them pick up another bronze medal, behind the Dutch and the Italians.
After racing a couple of combinations in recent years, France have returned to their tried and tested combination. Hugo Boucheron and Matthieu Androdias were crowned world champions back in 2022, where they beat the Spanish into second place. Since then, Boucheron has struggled to get out of the B-Final in this boat class and the last time these two raced together they were eighth overall at the 2023 Europeans. How great would it be to see this crew win at a home Olympics? What they need is time together but that is the one thing all crews are starting to run out of.
World Rowing Cup II heralds the return of the Kiwis to the dance. Jordan Parry and Robbie Manson have teamed up to take on this well-established field. New Zealand scraped a qualification spot at last year’s world championships after Manson teamed up with Benjamin Mason and came fifth in the B-final. While Parry didn’t race in Belgrade, he does have experience in the double, coming tenth overall at last year’s World Rowing Cup III. Both of these are athletes are fantastic in a single scull. Parry finished fourth at the 2022 world championships and Manson, of course, holds the world best time but that was nearly seven years ago. Mission one for the Kiwis is to get themselves back into the A-final.
Prediction
At the moment, siding with the Dutch is one of the smartest things you can do. They’ll take gold ahead of a shoot-out between Spain, Italy and Ireland, who I think will finish in that order.
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