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The final World Cup in Olympic year is always a bit of a strange affair. It’s often a mix of Olympic-bound crews looking for some final race practice, and nations looking to give experience to their development boats ahead of the next Olympic cycle. This year’s final World Cup is no different. The host for this World Cup is the Lake Malta course in Poznan, one of the most frequently used courses in all of World Rowing.
So, here’s my look at who to watch out for in each event and also perhaps a few names to watch for the LA Olympic cycle.
Entries: 16
The main crews to watch in this event will be the French, Irish, Germans and New Zealanders.
France, Hugo Boucheron and Matthieu Androdias, are the reigning Olympic champions. They have been racing together for the last 10 years and, as well as an Olympic gold, they also have world championships gold from 2018 and 2022. 2023 was a bit of a disappointment for the French with Androdias missing due to injury. Boucheron secured Olympic qualification with Valentin Onfroy by taking tenth at the world championships. This season the Olympic champions were back together and their one race together saw them finish fifth in Lucerne. They will be expecting a much stronger performance in Poznan as they look to defend their Olympic title next month.
Ireland’s Philip Doyle was a world championship silver medallist in 2019 with partner Ronan Byrne. In 2023 Doyle formed a new partnership with Daire Lynch. The new pairing made a strong start to their partnership, just missing the podium at the Europeans before going on to take bronze at the Lucerne World Rowing Cup and then the world championships. This season they’ve made one appearance, winning another bronze medal this time at the opening World Rowing Cup of the season.
Germany’s Jonas Gelsen and Marc Weber produced a strong performance in Varese, finishing just off the podium in fourth place. They raced together last season and finished eighth at the world championships to secure qualification. Gelsen won the BM1X world championships in 2022 and made his senior debut last season. Weber is also a former U23 BM1X world champion having won the title in 2019. He raced at the Tokyo Olympics with Stefan Krueger finishing 11th. They won their first medal as a crew after taking bronze at the European championships behind the Romanians and Spanish (Germany’s first championship medal in this boat class since the 2016 Europeans).
New Zealand have two boats competing in Poznan. NZL1 is the Olympic crew of Jordan Parry and Robbie Manson. The Kiwis grabbed the final automatic qualifying spot for Paris after finishing 11th at the 2023 world championships. On that occasion, Manson was partnered by Ben Mason. For 2024 he’s partnered by Jordan Parry. Parry is a former U23 world champion and spent most of the Tokyo Olympiad racing in the quad before moving to the single for the Games themselves. He raced in the single at the 2022 world championships, just missing the podium. Manson still holds the World Best Time in the single, 6:30.74 set on this course back in 2017. As a double Manson and Parry started racing together this season and in their one appearance placed fourth at the Lucerne World Rowing Cup.
NZL2 is Flynn Eliadis-Watson and Ben Mason. As mentioned above, Mason partnered Robbie Manson last season, qualifying the boat for Paris with an 11th-placed finish at the world championships. Eliadis-Watson is a former U23 silver medalist from 2022. This season the pair raced with Jack Ready and Zach Rumble in the M4X but failed to qualify for Paris at the FOQR.
Another nation with two crews racing is Norway. Whilst the Norwegians have qualified this boat for Paris after their crew of Jan Helvig and Kristoffer Brun finished ninth in 2023, that duo have moved to the M4X and qualified that boat via the FOQR, meaning they have to race that boat. So, it looks like Norway are trying to find a new doubles combination to take up that spot in Paris. Their selection decisions have been made more complicated after Olympic silver medalist and former world champion, Kjetil Borch, missed out on qualifying the single for Paris. For Poznan, Borch is partnered by Ole Armand Storlien racing as NOR1. Storlien was in the quad at the start of the season then for Lucerne made the A-Final in the M2x with Martin Helseth. Racing as NOR2 is Helseth and Erling Oeyasaeter. This duo have been racing together in one boat or another for a number of years; they finished ninth at the European championships in 2022 and were both in the M4X that finished tenth last season. Up until Borch’s sudden availability, the pairing of Helseth and Oeyasaeter were most likely the de facto Olympic double. Now that Borch is back in the mix, the selection battle has gotten very interesting indeed.
The M2X is one of the few boats that Great Britain hasn’t qualified for Paris (the fact that the crew of John Collins and Seb Devereaux weren’t even given the opportunity to try via the FOQR is a whole other story…..). So, for Poznan, GB have sent two development boats. Racing as GBR1 is Stephen Hughes and Cedol Dafydd. Hughes was a member of the GB U23 team last season, finishing fourth in the BM4X at the world championships. Dafydd was recruited to the GB team as part of the “Sporting Giants” talent ID scheme. Whilst at the University of Bath he won the M2X at the Holland Beker. GBR2 is Rory Harris and Tobias Schroder. Harris is a former Henley winner and made his debut for the senior GB team at the final World Rowing Cup of 2021, winning bronze in the M4X. Schroder is a former Oxford Blue and U23 world champion. He’s also got senior representative honours to his name, having raced in the M1X at the final World Cup last season.
The Netherlands are the reigning world champions, but, like the British, they have sent a development squad to Poznan. In the M2X their line-up is Vosse Meijssen and Olle Van Bohemen. This duo won the M2X title at the Holland Beker last week and Bohemen was a member of the Dutch U23 BM8 last season that raced the Cambridge Blue Boat in the run-up to the Boat Race and then placed fifth at the U23 world championships. Meijssen rowed in the NED M8 at the final World Rowing Cup of 2022 and last season won gold at the World University Games.
Australia’s entry includes world championship medalist David Bartholot. He won bronze with Caleb Antil in 2022. Last season he was a member of the Australian M4X that finished 11th. For Lucerne he’s joined by Sydney University’s Marcus Della Marta. Della Marta’s made his senior debut at the Final Olympic Qualifying Regatta. In 2022 he raced at the U23 world championships, finishing fifth in the BM4X. Last season he spent his time racing at the Coastal and Beach Sprint Championships. These two finished first and second in the Open M1X at the Australian State Championships in March. The Aussies narrowly missed out on qualification for Paris after a third place at the FOQR but have stated that they intend to compete at Henley and will be looking to be in the mix for a medal in Poznan.
The Moldovan duo of Chirill Visotchi-Sestacov and Ivan Corsunov made history in 2022, becoming the first Moldovans to make a world championship A-Final in an Olympic-class event; they finished that year in fifth place. They couldn’t replicate that form in 2023 and ended the season at the back of the B-Final. Visotchi-Sestacov tried qualifying the M1X at the European Qualifying Regatta but his eighth place wasn’t good enough. At the FOQR the Moldovans also came up short, placing sixth overall.
Croatia qualified the boat for Paris thanks to the Sinkovic brothers, but with their move to the pair, they swap with another set of brothers, Patrik and Anton Loncaric. This pair snatched the last automatic qualifying spot in the M2- after finishing 11th last year, so a straight swap with the Sinkovic’s hasn’t cost either set of brothers a place in Paris. The twins have only ever raced as a pair since winning the junior world title back in 2017. They raced at Varese, placing eighth, and then took 13th at the European championships.
Also racing are Poland, Jakub Wozniak and Konrad Domanski. This duo won silver at the U23 world championships last year and then placed 17th at the senior worlds.
The final two crews in the event are China and Finland. China has selected international debutant Rongcheng Zhang along with Zhiwei Ou who raced in this boat class at the 2022 world championships. Finland has Juho-Pekka Petaejaeniemi and Jukka-Pekka Kauppi; they finished 22nd in 2022 and missed Olympic qualification at the FOQR this year.
Prediction
Ireland in gold with Germany in silver and New Zealand in bronze
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