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: 9
There are three clear Olympic standout boats in this event, Poland, Switzerland and Germany.
Poland will probably be the favourite of the three. They are a well-established and highly experienced crew featuring Dominik Czaja, Mateusz Biskup, Miroslaw Zietarski and Fabian Baranski. This quartet were second in Lucerne and earlier in the season took bronze at the Europeans. They were bronze medalists in 2023 and in 2022 won both the world and European titles. Czaja and Baranski were in the quad that finished fourth in Tokyo and Biksup and Zietarski were the M2X in Tokyo, placing sixth.
The Swiss (Dominic Condrau, Jan Plock, Scott Baerlocher and Maurin Lange) are also a well-established crew. They were 11th in 2022 and then in 2023 made the A-Final, securing Olympic qualification with a fifth place. This season it’s one apiece between Poland and Switzerland. The Swiss had the stronger finish at the Europeans, winning the silver medal, but Poland got the better of them in Lucerne, finishing second to the Swiss sixth.
Poland has a second quad racing, their U23 boat of Daniel Galeza, Michal Randa, Igor Czekanowicz and Cezary Litka. All but Galeza were in the U23 BM4x that finished 12th at the U23 world championships last year. Galezea, a lightweight, was in the LM2X that placed 11th and just missed out on qualifying that boat for Paris at both the EOQR and the FOQR.
Germany has the same line-up that finished fifth at the 2023 world championships, Anton Finger, Max Appel, Tim Ole Naske and Moritz Wolff. Both Appel and Ole Naske were in the quad that finished eighth in Tokyo. This season, the Germans have been moving their line-up around. At the opening World Rowing Cup, where the Germans finished sixth, Finger and Appel raced with Arno Gaus and Julian Rommelmann. For Lucerne, Gaus was replaced by Ole Naske and now for Poznan, Rommelmann makes way for Wolff, meaning the 2023 line-up is now back together.
Germany also has their U23 boat racing, Paul Berghoff, Alex Finger (younger brother of Anton), Felix Heinrich and Paul Kreuger. Finger and Heinrich are reigning U23 world champions in the BM4X whilst Kreuger placed fourth in the BM2X. Berghoff was fifth in the BM1X last year, and this season raced in the single in Lucerne, finishing a creditable tenth.
Another nation with two boats entered is the Netherlands, and the contest between countrymen could get quite interesting. NED1 on paper look the stronger boat; Jorn Salverda, Stijn Wieling, Michiel Mantel and Wibout Rustenburg won the B-Final at the European championships. Mantel was in the Dutch eight that won silver at the world championships last year. However, the NED2 crew of Stendert Postma, Nicolaas Dirkzwager, Percijn Van Haeringen and Mats Van Sabben gave their No.1 crew a metaphorical “bloody nose” at the Holland Beker. Racing as Skoll, they beat their compatriots (racing as a Dutch team boat) on both days. The race-within-a-race between these two boats should be fun to watch.
The final two crews in the event are China and France. China have a mix of youth and experience. Leading the boat is Tokyo Olympian, Quan Zhang. He was seventh at the Olympics and also raced in the quad in 2018 and 2019. He’s supported by Baishun Liu who raced in the M2X at the 2022 world championships finishing 21st. The other two members of the crew are both making their senior debuts; 19-year-old Zhiwei Deng was in the U23 BM4X that came ninth last year and 24-year-old Xiaolong Mu makes his international debut.
France has entered their U23 crew of Martin Bauer, Samuel Arque, Jules Cresson and Alric Rodrigue. All four were members of the U23 team last year, Bauer and Cresson from the sixth place BM2X and Arque and Rodrigue were the U23 BM2X that finished fifth.
Prediction
Poland 1 in gold with Germany in silver and Switzerland in bronze.
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