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: 30
A deep and broad field in the men’s single welcomes the top five scullers from last year’s world championships. All eyes are immediately drawn to world and European champion Ollie Zeidler. The big German has been in imperious form in 2024, winning the first World Cup in Varese comfortably before dealing admirably with the tricky conditions Szeged presented to again come away with a gold. With Zeidler in this sort of form approaching the Olympics, it’s going to take a hell of a performance from the chasing pack to overthrow him.
Simon Van Dorp returns to competition after his silver medal at the opening World Cup. The Dutch senior team did not race at the European championships, opting instead to go on altitude camp and stack the miles, so Van Dorp may not be in the sharpest racing form. The flying Dutchman has some serious wattage behind him though and his transition to the single – a boat class he only really adopted last season when he was moved out of the quad – has been nothing short of remarkable.
Lucerne will be our first chance to see Tom Mackintosh in action after his world bronze in 2023. It is testament to the versatility of Mackintosh that he could switch so effortlessly from Olympic gold in the eight at Tokyo to a single, in which he has already collected two senior bronzes. Needless to say, the Kiwi did not step into this most solitary of pursuits to snatch minor silverware – he’ll be eyeing up a Parisian gold.
Olympic champion Stefanos Ntouskos shocked the world in taking gold in Tokyo, executing a perfectly-judged race to secure the biggest prize of them all. His performances since then have been a little more measured, including a fourth-placed finish at the 2023 world championships and a European silver behind Zeidler a few weeks ago. He has the potential to thrill though and seems to thrive in the chaos that single sculling can sometimes generate.
Sverri Nielsen was arguably Zeidler’s biggest rival through the 2023 season, finishing a place behind the German on four separate occasions before finishing fifth in Belgrade at the world championships. 2024 has started a little slowly for the Dane, with a fourth-placed finish at the European championships. His main aim will be reasserting himself on the podium, particularly in the face of sterner competition from the Netherlands and New Zealand.
Lithuania’s Dovydas Nemeravicius returns to action for the first time in 2024, having finished third in two successive ‘B’ finals at World Cup 3 and the world championships in 2023. Not to be discounted is his countryman Giedrius Bieliauskas, who won an impressive European bronze a few weeks ago ahead of a number of notable names.
Yauheni Zalaty, who hails from Belarus but flies under the ‘Individual Neutral Athlete’ flag, was fifth at the European championships and will be another good barometer of the pack’s general speed approaching Paris. He won the ‘B’ final at the 2023 world championships in his first senior race, having finished fifth at the U23 world championships in the same boat class in 2021.
The USA have entered athletes onto the international circuit for the first time in 2024 and will bring two scullers to contest this event. Michael Knippen, listed as USA1, actually started his career as a sculler when competing in the 2018 and 2019 world championships in the quad. He was sixth in the Winter Speed Order for Team USA in February. Ezra Carlson steps from the men’s eight – who finished an agonising sixth at the 2023 world championships to miss out on automatic Olympic qualification – into the single. The former Husky man – who graduated as an IRA-winning Varsity athlete from Washington in 2017 – finds himself in a sculling boat on the international stage for the first time since the 2012 junior world championships.
Ireland’s Konan Pazzaia returns to the circuit after winning the ‘B’ final at World Cup I. He was an U23 world champion in 2023 and his first season on the senior circuit will be pitched at being as competitive as possible amongst the biggest players.
Luca Rambaldi doubles up into the single alongside his usual double sculls haunt, an interesting move so close to the Olympics. The Italian was fourth alongside Matteo Sartori in Szeged after taking silver on home water in Varese so racing in the single is a curious divergence with the double’s challenging performance at the Europeans. He is joined by former lightweight world champion and 2023 world silver lightweight single scull silver medalist Niels Torre, who switches to the heavyweight arena for this contest.
Kristian Vasilev of Bulgaria qualified for the Olympics via the European Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Regatta, finishing second behind Nikolaj Pimenov of Serbia. The Bulgarian was fourth in the ‘B’ final at the 2023 world championships and has been racing internationally since 2011. He raced in Rio in the double, finishing ninth overall, and his best-ever performance came at the 2022 World Rowing Cup III where he won a silver in the single.
Tim Brys was third behind Vasilev at the European Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Regatta, which was enough to secure his plane ticket to Paris. The former lightweight – who finished fifth in Tokyo in the lightweight double sculls – made the openweight transition in 2022 and has varied his approach, featuring in the quad throughout that first season before switching to the single in 2023.
Kai Schaetzle from the Swiss men’s four also steps into the single for this event, doubling up after his crew’s fifth-placed performance at the European championships in April.
A word also on former German U23, Paul Berghoff, who makes his senior bow in Lucerne. With a junior world title and U23 silver at his back, his is definitely a name for the future.
Prediction
Frankly, it is hard to look past Zeidler for the gold. If the German sensation is on form and firing, he’ll be extremely difficult to stop. Behind him, Van Dorp will want to secure silver as a minimum, particularly with his altitude camp fresh in the legs. I will be very interested to see how the 2020 Olympic champion Mackintosh folds into a field already stacked with talent.
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