Image credit: World Rowing
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: 13
Great Britain are the World Cup leaders this season, but the GB Olympic team aren’t attending Poznan. In the absence of Tom George and Ollie Wynne-Griffith the British have set two pairs from their LA Development squad. GBR1 is Matt Heywood and James Doran with GBR2 being Jake Wincomb and Louis Nares. All four were part of the Oxford Brookes/Oxford University men’s eight that beat the Netherlands Olympic eight at the Holland Beker last week (setting an Oxford Brookes record in the process). Heywood, Wincomb and Nares are all U23 world champions, and Doran is an Oxford Blue.
Whilst it’s going to be interesting to see how these British pairs get on, the battle for the medals is likely to come down to a fight between Switzerland, Ireland and Croatia.
Switzerland’s Andrin Gulich and Roman Roeoesli are the reigning world champions. This season they have played second fiddle to the top British boat; silver at the first World Rowing Cup was followed by bronze at the Europeans (behind GB and Romania) and another bronze in Lucerne (behind GB again and Spain in silver).
All eyes will be on Martin and Valent Sinkovic of Croatia. The Olympic champions returned to the double for the majority of the Paris Olympiad, winning world championship silver last season. But, for 2024, they went back to the pair. Their return hasn’t gone totally to plan; they missed the podium at both the opening World Rowing Cup and the European championships (placing fourth on both occasions and nine seconds behind the British in Szeged). Those fourth places are only the second time the Sinkovics have missed the podium in the pair (the first time was back in 2018). They will definitely be looking to finish their Olympic preparations with a medal.
Ireland have had some injury troubles earlier in the season, which resulted in them having to mix and match their M2- line-up, but for Poznan they have their A-crew back together, Ross Corrigan and Nathan Timoney. This duo won Ireland’s first ever M2- world championship medal when they finished in third last season. They had a fairly unspectacular start to the 2024 season, only managing seventh at the opening World Rowing Cup. With Timoney missing World Rowing Cup two, Corrigan raced with John Kearney and went one better than WC1, making the A-Final and finishing sixth. Now back together, the world bronze medallists will be looking to push the Swiss and Croatians for a medal.
Ireland has a second boat racing – John Kearney is joined by Jack Dorney. Both Kearney and Dorney were members of the U23 BM4- that won silver in 2022 and then raced in the M4- at the 2022 and 2023 world championships.
New Zealand is another nation with two crews racing; NZL1 is Phillip Wilson and Daniel Williamson. They were both members of the Kiwi men’s eight that won gold at the Tokyo Olympics. When that project finished, Wilson raced in the M4X in 2022 without much success. Wilson raced with Ben Taylor in 2023, securing Olympic qualification with a ninth place at the world championships. Williamson, a Yale grad, raced with Wilson once during the 2023 season, finishing 13th at the Lucerne World Rowing Cup. NZL2 is Campbell Crouch and Ben Taylor. Crouch is a graduate of the University of California and U23 silver medallist whilst Taylor was in the pair last season that qualified the boat for Paris. Wilson and Williamson had been the designated pair for Paris, but Crouch and Taylor put the cat amongst the pigeons in Lucerne by beating their compatriots, forcing Rowing New Zealand to delay naming the Olympic crew and turning Poznan into a straight fight between the two boats for the Olympic spot – a definite race within a race.
Australia also has two boats entered; their nominated Olympic crew (racing as AUS1) is Paddy Holt and Simon Keenan. Holt was in the eight last season and Keenan raced in the pair with Fergus Hamilton, qualifying for Paris by finishing eighth. Keenan was also in the eight that raced in Tokyo, finishing sixth. As a pair this duo had a slightly stuttering start as a respiratory infection to Holt resulted in them withdrawing from the Lucerne World Rowing Cup. AUS2 is the Olympic reserves Rohan Lavery and Jackson Kench. They were both in the eight that won bronze in 2022. They were able to compete in Lucerne and finished second in the B-Final to take eighth overall. Whilst there isn’t the same level of uncertainty with the Aussie pairs as there is with the Kiwis, the spares would love to get one over their senior teammates.
Romania follow the trend of having two crews racing and they are both development boats made up of U23 athletes. ROU1 is Constantin Emanuele Sterea and Alexandru Gherasim. They were both members of the U23 eight that finished sixth last year and were in the senior Romanian eight that raced at the opening World Rowing Cup this season. ROU2 are teenagers Andrei-Vlad-Robert Vatamaniuc and Ionut Pavel. Pavel is another member of the 2023 U23 eight and Vatamaniuc was in the BM4+ last season.
The final crew in the event is the experienced French combination of Valentin Onfroy and Florian Ludwig. Onfroy hasn’t raced in a sweep boat since 2021 (when he raced with his brother Theophile at the Lucerne World Cup). In 2023 Onfroy partnered Hugo Boucheron in the M2X and qualified the boat for Paris and this season was part of the unsuccessful quad at the FOQR. Ludwig raced in the pair with Armand Pfister in 2023, but their 17th place wasn’t good enough to qualify for their home Olympics. This season the pairing of Ludwig and Pfister raced to an 11th place at the Europeans.
Prediction
Switzerland to take the gold ahead of the Croatians but I’ve got a sneaking feeling that one of the British boats could cause an upset and get the bronze.
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