Photo Credit: World Rowing / Benedict Tufnell
After the amuse-bouche that was the Zagreb World Cup, the 2023 rowing season finally gets properly underway with the European Championships—this year hosted at Lake Bled in Slovenia, considered by many to be one of the most picturesque rowing courses in the world. Here are my ones to watch in each event.
Men’s Single Scull
Twenty-three Entries
2022 Champion: Melvin Twellaar (Netherlands)
Last year’s champion, Melvin Twellaar, will not be defending his title; he’s instead competing in the double (the boat class in which he was European Champion in 2020 and Olympic silver medallist). Leonard Van Lierop takes his seat in the single. Van Lierop was a member of the World Championship Eight that won silver in 2022 and spent the 2021 World Cup series racing in the double.
Ollie Zeidler of Germany is the hot favourite to take the title in Bled. The 2022 World Champion struggled at the Europeans last season, getting sculled out of the medals altogether. However, he’s made a solid start to his 2023 campaign with a relatively comfortable win at the 1st World Cup and will be keen to retake the European title he won in 2021.
Norway’s Kjetil Borch is always one to watch; the Tokyo Olympic silver medallist has struggled with injury since the Olympics. Knee surgery limited his 2022 season, so much so that an eventual 5th place at the World Championships was deemed a decent result. He has posted on social media that his preparations for Bled haven’t been too good; his “aim is to compete, just that. Be able to warm-up, and have some decent races, with the total absence of expectations”.
Another sculler to watch will be the Olympic champion, Stefanos Ntouskos of Greece. He was the sculler who pushed Zeidler out of a podium place at last year’s Europeans and ended the season with an A Final at the World Championships. He’s made one appearance this season, racing at the Memorial Paolo d’Aloja in Piediluco in early April, placing 8th. On his day, Ntouskos can beat anyone, and at this stage of the season, it’ll be interesting to see what sort of speed he has.
Sverri Nielsen of Denmark raced for the first time since finishing 4th at Tokyo at the Zagreb World Cup. His 2nd place behind Zeidler was a solid performance. He has a good track record at the European Championships, winning the title in 2020 and taking silver in 2021.
Damir Martin of Croatia is always an exciting sculler to watch; the Rio Olympic final was one of the most incredible men’s single races ever. Unfortunately, his 2022 season was curtailed by injury, but he has returned for 2023 and raced at the 1st World Cup. His 7th place finish would have been below par, but he’s always been a “big event” racer, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see him challenging for a medal in Bled.
Lithuania’s Dovydas Nemeravicius may be the dark horse of the event. He has spent most of his career racing in crew sculling boats and raced at the Rio and Tokyo Olympics in the quad. He last raced in the single at a World Rowing Regatta as a U23 back in 2015. However, he’s made an excellent start to the season, taking the Men’s Single win in Piediluco. An A-Final placing would be a strong result.
Runner-up to the Lithuanian in Piediluco was Italy’s Davide Mumolo. Like Nemeravicius, he’s more used to bigger boats, having been a member of the Italian Eight from 2017-2021 and then the double for the 2022 season, the latter culminating in a ninth place at the World Championships.
Other scullers to watch include Nikolaj Pimenov. He’s racing for Serbia, having competed for Russia up until 2021. He won bronze at the 1st World Cup this season and will look for an A-Final place in Bled.
Look out also for Kristian Vasilev of Bulgaria, bronze medallist at last year’s Europeans and fourth at the Zagreb World Cup, and former lightweight Tim Brys of Belgium (fifth in the Lightweight Men’s Double in Tokyo).
Predictions: Zeidler looks in good form for gold, but behind him, it should be an excellent battle for the minor medals. I’m going for Neilsen in silver and Van Lierop in bronze.
Men’s Pair
Nineteen Entries
2022 Champions: Romania (Marius Cozmuic/Sergiu Bejan)
The World and European champions from Romania, Marius Cozmuic and Sergiu Bejan are back to defend their titles. Cozmuic was in the pair that won silver at the Tokyo Olympics with Ciprian Tudosa. Since Sinkovic’s return to the double, the Romanians have stepped up to dominate the field, winning both the European and World titles. They are also doubling up in the men’s eight, which is reasonably common for Romanian men and women.
The primary challengers to the Romanians will most likely be Great Britain’s Tom George and Ollie Wynne-Griffith. They were both members of the Eight that won bronze in Tokyo and also competed together for Cambridge at the 2022 Boat Race. As a pair, they took gold at both the first and second World Cups and were runners-up to the Romanians at the Europeans. Unfortunately, they ended 2022 on a slightly disappointing note (for them) with a bronze medal at the World Championships. That being said, they may be content with playing second fiddle to the Romanians at this stage of the season (especially as the whole Romanian team tend to prioritise the Europeans).
Switzerland’s new pairing of Roman Roeoesli and Andrin Gulich made a solid start to their partnership, winning the first World Cup (beating the world silver medallists from Spain and Olympic bronze medallists from Denmark in the process). Roeoesli raced in the double in Tokyo before switching to sweep and racing for Oxford at the 2022 Boat Race. Both he and Gulich raced in the four- last season, finishing fifth.
Jamie Canalejo Pazos and Javier Garcia Ordonez are Spain’s best men’s crew for a long time. Their silver medal at the 2022 World Championships was the best result for a heavyweight men’s crew since 1990, and in Tokyo, they became the first heavyweight men’s crew to make an Olympic final since their home Olympics in 1992. At the Europeans last year, they also made the podium, taking the bronze medal behind the Romanians and British. This season they raced at the Zagreb World Cup, finishing second.
Denmark’s Fed Vystavel and Joachim Sutton also made history in Tokyo, becoming the first heavyweight Danish men’s crew to win an Olympic medal since 1984. They are both products of the US collegiate rowing system, Vystavel rowed for Princeton (where he was a crewmate of Tom George), and Sutton rowed for Cal. They raced in Zagreb this season, taking bronze behind the Swiss and Spanish.
A new crew for this season is the Netherlands, Abe Wiersma and Guillaume Krommenhoek. They were members of the eight last season, taking silver at the European and World Championships. They both also competed at the Tokyo Olympics, with Wiersma winning gold in the M4X and Krommenhoek winning the B-Final in the M2- (partnered by Nikki Van Sprang).
Other pairs to watch include Serbia (Martin Mackovic and Mils Vasic). They were fourth at last year’s World Championships and finished fifth in Zagreb. Poland has the highly experienced Wiktor Chabel and Michal Szpakowski, both Olympians, with Chabel finishing fourth in the quad and Szpakowski seventh in the four. Chabel has been competing as a senior international since 2007, but this season will be his first in a sweep boat. They won at the Wedau Regatta in Duisburg earlier this month and will be an interesting new combination to watch.
The final crew to mention is Italy. Guiseppe Vicino and Davide Comini. Vicino was the World Champion in this boat class in 2017 (partnered by Matteo Lodo) and has an Olympic bronze medal in the four from Rio. Last season he raced in the M8, winning bronze at the Europeans. His partner for Bled, Comini, is much less experienced; he made his senior debut last season and raced in this boat class at the World Championships, with Giovanni Codato finishing eighth.
Predictions: this is set to be a great contest; I think the Romanians will probably have enough for the gold, but the British will want to be as close to them as possible. Bronze will be a toss-up between the Swiss, Dutch, Spanish and Danes.
Men’s Double Scull
Twenty-two Entries
2022 Champions: Croatia (Martin and Valent Sinkovic)
This has the makings of the race of the Championships, with the Olympic and World Champions from France (Hugo Boucheron and Matthieu Androdias) up against the former Olympic and World Champions from Croatia. When these two doubles met last year, the Croatians were unexpectedly dumped off the podium – the first time they had failed to win a medal in the double since the European Championships in 2008.
The Sinkovic’s bounced back from that shock defeat with a confidence-building win on their home water at the first World Cup, a win which delivered their 50th international medal. For their part, Boucheron and Androdias dominated the event whilst the Sinkovic’s had switched to the pair, winning the European title in 2021 and 2022 and the Olympic and World titles. However, injury meant they missed most of the 2022 season; Boucheron raced the single at the second and third World Cups, but they returned in the double at the Worlds to take gold.
But it’s not just about France v Croatia; the Netherlands will also be serious contenders for the gold medal; Stefan Broenink and Melvin Twellaar raced in this boat class at the Tokyo Olympics, winning a silver medal behind the French. They also won the European title in 2021 and were runners-up in 2021. Last season Twellaar raced in the single, winning gold at the Europeans and silver at the World Championships. Broenink competed in the quad, finishing fourth at Worlds. With these two back together in the double, it makes the competition even more fierce.
Another nation who will expect to be fighting for the medals is Spain; Rodrigo Conde Romero and Aleix Garcia Pujolar were runners-up to the Croatians at the Zagreb World Cup and, last season, won a superb silver medal at the World Championships, Spain’s first ever World Championship double scull medal. What makes it even more interesting to watch is that they are still a relatively young crew, Pujolar is still only 22, and Romero is 25.
Great Britain hasn’t won a major senior championship in this boat class since Bailleu and Hart won the World Championships in 1977. However, this year there is a new combination with a mix of experience. John Collins is the oldest member of the British men’s squad (at the age of 34). He’s been racing on the senior team since 2012 and was fifth in this boat class in Rio and fourth in Tokyo. This season he has a new partner, 28-year-old Sebastian Devereux. Devereux was the U23 World Champion in the double back in 2017 and made his senior debut last season, racing in the quad at the first and second World Cups. It will be interesting to see how this new combination gets on, but in such a strong field, an A-Final placing would be a major achievement.
Last month’s winners at the Memorial Paolo d’Ajola were the Italian combination of Luca Rambaldi and Matteo Sartori. Rambaldi won this event in 2017 and won a World Championship bronze that year. After switching to the quad, he was a member of the crew that won the World Championships in 2018, the Europeans in 2021 and finished fifth in Tokyo. Last season he moved back to the double, partnered by Davide Mumolo but could only finish ninth. 21-year-old Sartori was an U23 World Champion in 2022 in the quad and then raced the single at the senior Europeans and Worlds. As with the British, this is a new combination with a mix of experience, so an A-Final placing would be a positive.
Ireland is another combination to keep an eye on. They have Dr Philip Doyle partnered with Daire Lynch, a duo that was the runner-up to the Italians in Piediluco. Doyle surprised many in the rowing world when he and his partner Ronan Byrne won silver at the 2019 World Championships. They struggled to recapture that performance but finished a creditable tenth in Tokyo. Lynch made his senior debut in 2020, partnering Doyle to a bronze medal at the European Championships. He raced in the men’s single throughout 2021 but missed out on qualification for Tokyo.
Of the other crews racing, the ones to watch for include Belgium, with reigning U23 World Champions Tristan Vandenbussche and Aaron Andries. Lithuania’s Armandas Kelmelis and Giedrius Bieliauskas came third at Piediluco, and Kelmelis was a bronze medallist in this event last year. The final crew to watch are Moldova, Ivan Corsunov and Chirill Visotchi-Sestacov, who placed 5th at the world championships last year – Moldova’s best-ever result at a World Championships.
Predictions: This one is too close to call. Gold will be between Croatia and France, with the Netherlands and Spain battling for bronze. Gut instinct says the Croatians may be a little more “race sharp” than the French, and they may take the gold, but it could be a different story as the season progresses.
Men’s Four
Eleven Entries
2022 Champions: Great Britain (Will Stewart, Sam Nunn, Matt Aldridge, Freddie Davidson)
It’s perhaps a mark of just how strong the British Rowing squad is at the moment that two World Champions (Will Stewart and Sam Nunn) are only selected as spares for the team heading to Bled. The British will start as firm favourites after going unbeaten throughout 2022, though they have tweaked their line-up for 2023. Matt Aldridge missed the Worlds due to injury, but he returns to the boat along with Freddie Davidson and Dave Ambler (who subbed for Aldridge at the World Championships). The final member of the crew is also the least experienced; Ollie Wilkes won silver in the U23 coxed four back in 2017 but didn’t make his senior debut until the second World Cup of 2021 when he and Matt Tarrant finished fourth in the pair.
The biggest threat to the British will come from Romania: Mihaita Tiganescu, Mugurel Vasile Semciuc, Stefan Berariu and Florin Lehaci. They are an unchanged line-up from last season which saw them win bronze at the Europeans and fourth at the World Championships. Three of this boat also won silver at the Tokyo Olympics (Lehaci raced in the eight that missed the A-Final). Unfortunately, all four of these athletes are doubling up in the eight in Bled, which means they will have at least one extra race in their legs.
The first World Cup winners in Zagreb were Switzerland, with Dominic Condrau, Kai Schaetzle, Joel Schuerch and Patrick Brunner. Schuerch is the sole remaining member of the four that finished fifth at the 2022 World Championships; the other three members of the crew all raced in the quad last season that finished eleventh.
The Netherlands were silver medallists behind the British at last season’s European Championships, but for 2023 they have a completely new line-up. Nelson Ritsema raced in this boat at the Tokyo Olympics and is joined by 21-year-old Guus Mollee, a member of the silver medal-winning eight last season. Alongside them, U23 medallists Gert-Jan Van Doorn and Olav Molenaar – both making their senior debuts – step up into the four.
France is likely to be in contention for the minor medals; their crew of Benoit Brunet, Guillaume and Thibaud Turlan and Teo Rayet won gold at the Wedau Regatta earlier this month. The Turlan brothers raced in the pair at the Tokyo Olympics, and last season, Thibaud Turlan and Teo Rayet were in the four which finished twelfth.
Other crews to watch include Poland, second at the Wedau Regatta, and Ukraine, bronze medallists from Zagreb.
Predictions: It will be a major disappointment for the British not to take the title. I expect Romania to win silver, with the bronze going to The Netherlands or Switzerland.
Men’s Quadruple Scull
Twelve Entries
2022 Champions: Italy (Nicolo’ CArucci, Andrea Panizza, Luca Chiumento and Giacomo Gentilli)
This has the makings of a great contest, with the gold, silver and bronze medal crews from the 2022 World Championships all racing with almost unchanged line-ups.
Poland won the 2022 World Championships, and they have the same crew back for 2023 – Miroslaw Zietarski, Dominik Czaja, Mateusz Biskup and Fabian Baranski. Czaja and Baranski were in the quad that finished fourth in Tokyo, and Zietarski and Biksup raced the double that also made the A-Final at the Olympics. Their victory last season was the first for Poland in the quad since 2009.
The Italians beat them at the Europeans last season, who also come into 2023 with an unchanged line-up, Nicolo’ Carucci, Luca Chiumento, Andrea Panizza and Giacomo Gentili. Gentelli and Panizza were in the quad that finished fifth in Tokyo, whilst both Chiumento and Carucci are former U23 medallists. The Italians were bronze medallists at the World Championships. So far this season, they had an early outing at the Memorial Paolo d’Aloja, where they finished second to the Netherlands.
The British are the only crew from last year’s World Championship podium to have a change in their line-up. Harry Leask has left rowing to compete in the America’s Cup. 23-year-old Callum Dixon takes his place from Twickenham Rowing Club. He made his international debut last season, reaching the A-Final of the single at the first World Cup and taking seventh at the U23 World Championships. He joins the three remaining crew members from the World Championship silver medal-winning crew: Tom Barras, George Bourne and Matt Haywood.
The Netherlands were fourth at last year’s World Championships and only eighth at the Europeans, but they have a 50% changed line-up for 2023. Simon Van Dorp and Finn Florijn are joined by two of the Olympic gold medal crew, Koen Metesmakers and Tone Wieten. For Wieten, this will be his first season back after the Olympics. This quartet raced in Piediluco, beating the Italians by over seven seconds.
The Czech Republic made a solid start to the 2023 season with a victory at the opening World Cup (their first in this event since 2006). This was a strong performance from the crew of Jan Potucek, Marek Diblik, Filip Zima and Dalibor Nedela, two of whom were in the quad that finished fifteenth last season.
Another interesting crew to watch is Lithuania’s entry of Dominykas Jancionis, Mindaugas Griskonis, Zygimantas Galisanskis and Povilas Stankunas. Jancionis and Galisankis were in the crew that finished ninth at last year’s Worlds, Stankunas is one of four brothers on the Lithuanian team, but he is better known as a sweep oarsman and raced in the M4- last season; Bled will be his first international sculling race. But the most exciting addition to the crew is Griskonis. The 37-year-old is more well-known as a single sculler and has won three European titles in the class. This will be his first international race in the quad.
Predictions: This is too close to call; any one of the four crews could win. If I have to pick one, I’m tempted to go with the new Netherlands quad, with Italy in silver and GB in bronze.
Men’s Eight
Six Entries
2022 Champions: Great Britain (Rory Gibbs, Morgan Bolding, Dave Bewicke-Copley, Sholto Carnegie, Charlie Elwes, Tom Digby, James Rudkin, Tom Ford, Harry Brightmore)
Great Britain was undefeated last season, and they return for 2023 with just one change to their World Championship-winning line-up; Jacob Dawson comes in to replace Dave Bewicke-Copley. Dawson was a member of the Olympic bronze medal men’s eight, and Bled marks his first race since the Olympic final.
This event has long been about Great Britain versus Germany, but since the Tokyo Olympics, the Germans have been in rebuilding mode and have struggled to deliver the sort of results that the country has come to expect. Their preparations were thrown into further disarray earlier this year with the shock firing of chief coach Uwe Bender, a decision that was not supported by the athletes, who posted a statement saying that “there was a false impression that ‘the athletes’ were responsible for the resignation of Uwe Bender. We point out that the sole responsibility for this decision lies with the German Rowing Federation”.
So against the background of this turmoil, it will be interesting to see how the German eight performs. They have two changes to the crew that finished seventh at the 2022 World Championships (their worst result in this event this century). Olaf Roggensack had to miss the world championships due to work commitments with the German police, and the other change is Marc Kammann’s moves into the men’s eight, having raced in the four last season.
With the Germans struggling, the main rivals to the British last year were The Netherlands. They were runners-up to the British at both the European and World Championships (and this despite catching a boat-stopping grab in the first 250m at the Europeans). As a result, they’ve made several changes to their 2022 crew, with only Nikki Van Sprang, Jacob Van Der Kerkhof, Mick Makker and Cox Dieuwke Fetter returning. Joining them are three members of the bronze medal four from 2022, Sander De Graaf, Rik Rienks and Ruben Knab. The final member of the crew is Jan Van Der Bij, who raced in the four in Tokyo and the quad at the 2022 Worlds.
Romania is doubling their eight with the four, pair and double, a policy which hasn’t always worked out for them. In 2022 they finished fifth at the European Championships and sixth at the Worlds. They have made just one change from their 2022 World Championship boat, with Ciprian Tudosa replacing Alexandru-Cosmin Macovei. Although the eight will be a straight final (the Romanians can choose whether to participate in the race for lanes), the extra racing in the other events may cost them against such intense competition.
Poland has a long history in this boat class; for 2023, they have put together a completely new line-up. They are a young crew based around the U23 eight that finished fifth at last year’s U23 Worlds (Przemyslaw Wanat, Mikolaj Januszewski, Jerzy Kaczmarek and Cox Tomasz Skurzynski). In addition, there are two international debutants in the crew in Wojciech Szwarc and Piotr Dziewieczynski, whilst being joined by the more experienced Adam Wozniak, Piotr Jusszczak, and former U23 international Damian Jozefowicz. This crew raced at the Wedau regatta finishing 4th behind two crews from Oxford Brookes and Leander Club.
The final crew in the event is Italy. They took bronze at the European Championships but ended 2022 on a disappointing note when they could only manage 9th at the World Championships. This season they have three of the 2022 boats returning, Alfonso Sclazone, Giovanni Abagnale and Leonardo Pietra Caprina. They are joined by last season’s M2-Giovanni Codato and Davide Comini, along with former U23 internationals Davide Verita’ and Alessandro Bonamonta.
Predictions: This is GB’s to lose, but it should be a good battle with the Netherlands, and then Germany should be comfortably ahead of the rest of the field for the bronze
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