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
The queens of this boat class return to action, following Emily Craig‘s withdrawal from the European championships through illness. Imogen Grant was joined at the last minute by Liv Bates, a capable understudy, but with little time to gel, a fourth place was all they could hope for. This weekend though, the team is back at full strength in a line-up that hasn’t lost a race since their fourth place at the Tokyo Olympics. Two world titles later, they enter this race having already won the first round of the World Rowing Cup series this season and seem almost unshakable in their dominance of this traditionally close event.
If the queens have returned following their absence, this event also sees the start of the season for the ladies-in-waiting: Molly Rockford and Michelle Sechser from the United States. Silver medallists at both of the last two world championships, they have been chasing the tail of the British boat for years, even finishing fifth behind them in Tokyo. They will not be satisfied with this and will be looking to overturn the Brits in time for Paris. How their winter has prepared them for that will be revealed this weekend.
The only other crew here with a world championships medal this cycle is the Irish combination of Aoife Casey and Margaret Cremen, who won bronze in 2022. However, at the most recent championships, their fortunes were not as bright. They fell to the B-final, which they won to claim the last spot in the Olympics available at that regatta. They have not yet raced internationally this season and will be hoping that they will be able to tap into more of the form from 2022 as they launch their Olympic campaign.
The crew from China, represented by Jiaqi Zou and Xiuping Qiu, were more comfortable in their qualification but are yet to really have a standout result in their young careers, finishing eighth and sixth at the 2022 and 2023 world championships respectively. A standout performance this weekend would put them in good stead as they eye their Olympic debuts in Paris, having only rowed at age-group events prior to this cycle. With such young athletes there is room for great growth in short time periods, and the Chinese Federation will be hoping that is the case here.
The other two crews present that qualified from the 2023 world championship A-Final are Canada and New Zealand who were in fourth and fifth respectively in Belgrade. Travelling far, this is the first race of the season for the Kiwi duo of Shannon Cox and Jackie Kiddle. For Cox, this is only her second season on the world stage and she will be hoping to improve under the wing of the more experience Kiddle who won silver in the world championships in 2017 and won ahead of Grant and Craig in 2019, though did not travel to Tokyo.
For the Canadians, Jill Moffat and Jennifer Casson have already raced in Europe once this season, finishing fifth in a fairly unimpressive field (after catching a boat-stopping crab in the opening strokes). They will be hoping to quickly move on from that this weekend and put it right with a strong performance against world class opposition.
For some, their trip to Paris wasn’t as simple with three different crews having earned their spots through the continental regatta. None of these crews have done too well in recent worldwide regattas as the Japanese crew contains Emi Hirouchi from their 18th-placed crew at the 2022 world championships and Ayami Oishiwho has not returned to the lightweight events previously in the shortened Olympiad. They did reign victorious at the Asian and Oceanian qualification regatta but may have too tough an opposition here to make a name for themselves.
It’s a similar story for the Tunisian crew who secured the only spot in this event at the African Continental qualifier. The crew of Khadija Krimi and Selma Dhaouadi finished 18th in Belgrade at the back of the C-Final in Dhaouadi’s first season as a senior international, joining Krimi who finished third-from-last in Tokyo with another partner.
Rounding out the Olympic qualifiers in the field are Peru, who’s crew of Allesia and Valeria Palacious finished second at the Americas Qualification Regatta, to earn their place in Paris. The twin sisters have rowed together in all of their international races, from winning silver in the lightweight pair at the 2022 U23 world championships to their 19th-placed finish in this boat class at the most recent senior event. For the young sisters, their place in Paris is confirmed but they may struggle here against crews from more established rowing nations.
The two remaining crews in the entry will be doubling up after racing at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta earlier in the week. The Swiss pairing of Olivia Nacht and Eline Rol were the Development “SUI2” crew at all three World Rowing Cups but claim the top title for this year. They placed sixth at both the Varese World Cup and the European championships and will be taking an extra race on their home water, racing at every opportunity against top opposition.
The final crew in the entry is the Uzbek entry of Luizakhon Islomova and Malika Tagmatova, who are also pencilled in to do the double in Lucerne. They missed out on qualification at the Asian continental qualifier by open water so this trip to Lucerne may be the start and end of their European season as progression either here or at the Regatta of Death seems unlikely.
Prediction
With such domination in the past, it would be foolish to pick anyone other than the Great Britain crew to win here and I expect them to have open water on the field. The United States will be the best of the rest while the Canadians are my picks to round out an all-English-speaking podium.
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