Image credit: World Rowing
With the start of the Paris Olympics just a few weeks away the time has come for the Final Olympic Qualifying Regatta, aka “The Regatta of Death”. This is the last chance for 28 boats to book their place at the Olympic party. Held on the glorious waters of the Rotsee in Lucerne – the aptly-named Lake of the Gods – it is, perhaps, the hardest and most brutal set of races throughout the entire Olympic cycle. The maths is very straightforward (unlike the Continental Qualifiers which are anything but); finish in the top two and you’re in. If you don’t then that’s it – the Olympic dream is over for another four years.
Entries: 12
France will be heading into Lucerne with high hopes of making the cut for their home Games. Their double of Hugo Beurey and Ferdinand Ludwig were sixth in the world in 2022 and won World Cup medals at both the second and third World Cups in 2023. However, they were forced to make a medical withdrawal during the world championships last year, robbing them of a what would have been almost certain automatic qualification. They’ve not raced so far this season so it’ll be interesting to see what pace they have, but they definitely have the pedigree to secure a top-two finish.
Germany were silver medallists in Tokyo and one of that pairing, Jonathan Rommelmann, returned to the boat last season. It’s taken him a while to gel with his new partner, Paul Leerkamp; they were a little off the pace, only managing tenth at the world championships. This season, they raced at the first World Cup finishing in sixth place (somewhat surprisingly being beaten by the U23 German double of Finn Wolter and Nikita Mohr).
Poland are another crew with Olympic experience as Jerzy Kowalski was in the crew that finished eighth in Tokyo. He was joined in 2023 by Daniel Galeza; they posted an eighth at the Europeans and then 11th at the world championships. Lucerne will be their second attempt at Olympic qualification this season as they narrowly missed out at the European Qualification regatta (their third place was just one off of qualifying).
One place behind the Poles at the European Qualifying Regatta were Portugal, with the Duarte Costa brothers, Afonso and Dinis. They have been racing together as a lightweight double since their U23 days back in 2016. Their best result was fourth at the 2022 Europeans and then seventh at the worlds. Last season was less successful; 11th at the Europeans was followed by 17th at the world championships. They’ve made a decent start to 2024 with an eighth place in Varese.
Winners of the B-Final in Varese was Austria, Julian Schoeberl and Lukas Reim. They were 14th at the 2022 world championships and last season Schoeberl raced with Paul Ruttmann, placing 20th at the world championships. This season, as well as a seventh place at the World Cup, they raced at the European Qualifying Regatta, placing fifth.
China has, so far, only qualified one men’s boat for Paris (the M2X). They will have their work cut-out to qualify the lightweight version; they have selected Zikang Yao and Bohao Zhu. They’ve made one international appearance as a double, finishing sixth at the second World Cup last year. Zhu raced at the Asian Rowing Championships in 2019, winning gold in the M2X.
Greece will have high hopes of qualification. Their line-up includes world silver medallist in the LM1X from 2022, Antonios Papakonstantinou. He’s joined by Petros Gkaidatzis who has been part of the Greek LM2X since 2018. Papakonstinou and Gkaidatzis formed their partnership at the beginning of 2023 and made an immediate impact, taking bronze at the European Championships (Greece’s first medal in this boat class since 2014). They couldn’t quite replicate that performance at the world championships, ending up 13th. Lucerne marks their first appearance of the 2024 season but if they show the sort of speed that had at the Europeans last year they will be right up there in contention.
The final crews to mention are Turkey and the USA. Turkey, Enes Gok and Halil Kaan Koroglu, were 14th at the world championships last year and this season made the final of the European Qualifying Regatta. The USA has selected Cooper Tuckerman and Sam Melvin. Tuckerman spent three years on the US U23 team and Lucerne marks his senior debut. Melvin is a former U23 world champion and won the B-Final of the LM1X at the worlds last year.
Prediction
France and Germany to take the qualifying places.
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