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: 11
Dominant in this event for almost a decade now, the Ukrainian Roman Polianskyi will enter this season with a single objective: his third successive Paralympic Gold. A year on from his last defeat, he opened this season with a 4.6 second victory at the European Championships. He has supreme confidence at the highest level, having won the last three World Championships dating back to 2019, he will be satisfied with nothing less than a gold medal from Lucerne to add to his impressive collection.
The last person to beat Polianskyi was Giancomo Perini of Italy, – at the European Championships last year he got a five second victory over the Ukrainian. He is much more used to the second step of the podium, however, having claimed Silver at both World Championships since Tokyo. Newer to the sport, he has not competed at a Paralympic Games before, and if he wants to make his first appearance as impactful as possible, he will need to be able to get the better of the Polianskyi on a regular basis.
So often the bridesmaid, Erik Horrie of Australia has won silver at the last three Paralympic Games, with two different winners across that time. Despite this, he is the most recent person to defeat the dominant Polianskyi at the World Championships, claiming the crown in 2018. A veteran of the sport, he will be looking to match Katherine Granger to finally win a gold after three consecutive silvers, but faces a tough challenge from those previously mentioned.
Shmuel Daniel of Israel had his best ever major championships when he finished fifth in Belgrade and has started his season exactly where he left off, with a fifth-place finish at the European Championships in April. The Israeli has constantly improved, moving up the ranks in this event class, transitioning from a C-final stalwart to appearing consistently in the A-final. In this Paralympic year, he will be wanting to continue this trend, potentially putting himself in contention for a medal on the Rotsee.
The final automatic qualifier from Belgrade came from an unusual rowing country, as the Uzbek Edamberdiev Kholmurod topped the B-final. It was only his second season on the world stage and the 21-year-old is among the top athletes in the category. With such exceptional youth, he could expect to progress quickly, but will the Games come around too quickly for a potential podium charge? This event will be a key test as some, but not all, of the major contenders are present.
After from Belgrade, four continental qualifiers were held across the world. Javier Garcia Martinez of Spain was the fastest non-qualifier at the 2023 World Championships so it was not too surprising to see him qualify for the games at the European Regatta in Szeged. He will be looking to get back towards the front in time for Paris. Maher Rahmani of Tunisia topped the African Qualification Regatta on home water back in October, comfortably ahead of the South African and Egyptian entries. In the Asian event, there was some controversy as the Kazak sculler was excluded as the restraint strap was improperly applied, allowing the Japanese sculler Takuya Mori to go to Paris in his place. This weekend, he will have the opportunity to show he belongs at the premier event in the sport.
This event will also give opportunities to those who are not going to Paris. Alaa Hassan Ibrahim of Egypt, David Zeelenberg of the Netherlands and Andrew Mangan of the United States were all in the bottom half of the entry at the Final Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Regatta on this course earlier in the week, so will be wanting to give a better showing of themselves if they are to line up in the heats on Friday morning.
Prediction
There is no suggestion that there will be anyone able to take on the dominant Roman Polianskyi for the gold medal, but the battle for silver remains interesting. I would pick the relative youth of Giancomo Perini over the experience of Erik Horrie.
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