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: 6
Where to start other than with Great Britain. An undefeated, unstoppable bulldozer of a crew that should be in conversations for one of the greatest sports teams of all time. There is one change to the crew to the one that raced the European championships earlier this year, which sees 2023 world champion Morgan Fice-Noyes come back into the boat in place of Josh O’Brien.
Great Britain won the European championships by more than ten seconds, a margin that will likely be repeated this coming weekend.
GB aren’t the only nation switching up their crews in a Paralympic year. The United States are considered ‘best of the rest’ by virtue of their silver medal at last year’s world championships. They also ran GB very close, with less than three seconds separating the two crews at the finish line. World Rowing Cup III sees them add Gemma Wollenschlaeger this year in place of Saige Harper. Wollenschlaeger joins from the PR3 mixed double scull which she won a silver medal in at last year’s world championships.
Australia have got a new driver in their coxing seat. Fresh from a fourth-placed finish at the U23 world championships in the men’s coxed four, Hannah Cowap has been parachuted into the crew that was fourth at in the world last year, in 2022 and at the Tokyo Paralympics.
If Australia are to shake a monkey off their backs and pick up a medal at a major championship, they’ll need to wiggle past either Germany or France. The Germans were second at last year’s Europeans and went on to win the bronze medal at the world championships. At the two events, there were just four and six seconds separating the Germans from the French and earlier this year, with the Germans absent, France went on to win silver at the Europeans, seven seconds back on GB.
The final entry comes from Italy. This crew had a slightly different journey to the start line. Italy were forced to race at the Final Paralympic Qualification Regatta in Lucerne, where they comfortably won ahead of the likes of Spain and Brazil. This means they’ll have been operating a different training load to the rest of the field but now all six of these crews are gearing up for the Paralympics in Paris.
Prediction
Great Britain to win gold with the United States leaving with the silver medal.
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