Cover Image: World Rowing
After a hiatus in 2020 (for obvious reasons) the Rowing World Cup circuit kicks off again with the 1st World Cup from April 30th – 2nd May. For the first time the World Cup visits Zagreb in Croatia and the Jarun Lake. First used for the 1988 World University Games, the course played host to the 2000 World Championships (non-Olympic events) and last hosted a major international regatta in 2016 with the European University Championships.
It is a little disappointing, although perhaps not surprising, that the entries for the 1st World Cup are a little limited. Six of the events have six entries or fewer, meaning straight finals, and for the first time at a World Cup there will be no men’s or women’s 8’s. It also looks like a number of nations are using the World Cup to give international experience to young athletes with no fewer than 41 athletes making their senior international debuts (including 5 of the 8 entries in the LW1X), that’s 17.5% of the total – another record for a World Cup.
World Rowing has decided to use this World Cup to test Time Trials instead of side-by-side heats, so this will present a different challenge to all the crews.
So, as always I’ll cast my eye over the entries and try and give a form guide for each of the events…..
M1X
24 entries
Having said that entries for this World Cup are limited, this is one event where the majority of the big names are entered. Leading the field is Ollie Zeidler. Winner at the European Championships he dominated the field in the A Final. But, he didn’t have it all his own way during the regatta. In his heat he was blitzed by Ntsoukas of Greece who beat him by a whopping 14 seconds, sending the World Champion to the repechage. The key point in the heat were the conditions; it was blustery and the water was a bit choppy. In the final however it was a different story and in benign conditions Zeidler was again on top. So, it would appear the young German is vulnerable in less than perfect conditions. The forecast in Zagreb is a bit mixed, with the opening day bringing showers and a 7 m/s wind, so it’ll be interesting to see how Zeidler gets on.
None of the other medallists from Varese are racing in Zagreb, but one big name who does make an appearance is Ondrej Synek. The five-time World Champion had entered the M2X at the European’s but withdrew due to illness. But, in Zagreb he’s back in the boat he qualified for Tokyo in. He was 6th in the World in 2019 but has been a fixture of the M1X field for the last 16 years and made his senior debut when his main rival (Zeidler) was just 5 years old!. He’s still hunting for an elusive Olympic Gold medal, and Zagreb will be a good test of whether he’s still a force to be reckoned with.
The 3rd M1X World Champion racing in Zagreb is the 2018 gold medallist, Kjetl Borch of Norway. He had a mixed regatta in Varese, winning both his heat and semi, but then struggled in the final and ended up 6th nearly 13 seconds behind Zeidler. He’ll be looking for a stronger performance in Zagreb.
Damir Martin of Croatia will be looking for an impressive performance on home water. His performances since that epic final in Rio have been a little disappointing (8th at the 2019 World Championships and 14th at the 2020 Europeans). At this year’s Euros he battled his way to the final via the repechage and ended up 5th.
Croatia have a 2nd entry in the M1X – David Sain. He was a crewmate of Martin’s in the Olympic silver medal M4X from London 2012. After a lengthy absence through injury he made a return to competition at the European Championships racing in the M2X with Goran Mahmutovic finishing 18th.
Lithuania have split their M2X into singles for Zagreb. Mindaugus Griskonis and Saulius Ritter grabbed the final qualifying spot for the M2X at the 2019 World Championships. The Rio silver medallists had intended to race together at Varese but withdrew through illness. It’s interesting that Lithuania have chosen to race them in the singles rather than in the double.
These 7 scullers are the form of the field, but also racing Tokyo bound Onat Kazakli of Turkey, who qualified for Tokyo at the European Qualification Regatta, and Egypt’s Abdelkhalek.
There are three scullers making their senior debuts in Varese, Emil Neykov of Bulgaria (son of 2008 Olympic champion Rumyana Neykova), Boris Cesarec (racing as Croatia 3), and Poland’s Piotr Plominski (6th in the JM1X in 2019).
Time for a medal prediction (yay!). If the weather is calm then I can’t see anyone beating Zeidler, but if conditions get a little interesting then it could be Borch on the top step. I fully expect Synek to be back challenging for the medals as well.
M2X
20 entries
A big field, but one in which there are a couple of standout crews. One of the performances of the European Championships was that of the French, Hugo Boucheron and Matthieu Androdias. The 2018 World Champions produced an exceptional race to overhaul both the British and the Dutch in the final 500m to take the title.
The main challengers to the French will come from Switzerland. Barnabe Delarze and Roman Roeoesli were 4th in Varese having won silver at the 2020 Europeans. They were runners-up to the French at the 2018 World Championships and were both members of the Swiss M4X that finished 6th in Rio.
Switzerland have a 2nd crew racing featuring Kai Schaetzle and Tim Roth. Roth was a world junior medallist in 2019 and finished 19thin the single at the Europeans this year. Schaetzle raced in the U23 Quad at the 2019 World Championships finishing 8th.
The Netherlands were runners-up to the French at the Europeans, but have a completely different line-up racing in Zagreb. Here they are represented by Willem Albert van Kuijk and Lennart Lierop. Van Kuijk is making his international debut and Lierop last raced at the 2nd World Cup in 2019 where he finished 17th in the M2X with Guido De Ruiter.
Another strong medal contender are the Polish, Miroslaw Zietarski and Mateusz Biksup. They finished 5th in Varese and were World Championship bronze medallists in 2019.
Germany’s search for a medal-potential double continues. Their current boat of Marc Weber and Stephan Krueger finished 9th at the Europeans, two places lower than their result in 2020. They have qualified the boat for Tokyo having finished 10th at the 2019 World Championships with Krueger and Tim Ole Naske. Assuming Krueger is selected for Tokyo it will be his 4th Olympics. But, the pairing with 2019 U23 World Champion Weber, has yet to really find the speed to challenge for the medals.
Germany have a 2nd boat racing, with Stephan Riemekasten and Moritz Wolff. Riemekasten last raced at the Rotterdam World Cup in 2019 where he finished 18th in the M1X. Wolff is making his senior debut after a very strong junior and U23 career which saw him win a JM1X silver medal in 2017 and an U23 silver in the BM4X in 2019.
Kristoffer Brun and Are Strandli have qualified the LM2X for Tokyo but raced in the heavyweight double in Varese finishing 13th. The Rio LM2X bronze medallists are doing so again in Zagreb which one can only presume is so that they can race without having to worry about making weight at this stage of the season.
There are five other crews which see athletes making their senior international debuts. The hosts have three boats racing in this event but only one of their athletes (Goran Muhmutovic in CRO1) has raced at senior level before. Muhmutovic is joined by Jakov Bijelic who raced at the 2018 Junior Worlds. In CRO2 are Gordan Milovac and Fran Suk and in CRO3 are Mihael Girotto and Patrik Apac.
Finland are another crew making their debuts, and, if the World Rowing website is correct (which these days is a big if….don’t get me started!), includes Jukka-Pekka Kauppi who makes his international debut at the age of 40! He’s joined by Antti Koiranen who raced the U23 BLM1X in 2018.
The final boat with international debutants is Slovakia with teenagers Tomas Anda and Jakub Herhonek.
Other crews to watch include Italy (Luca Chiumento and Nicolo Carucci – 8th in Varese), and Estonia 1 (Mikhail Kushteyn and Johann Poolak – 6th in the BM2X in 2019).
Medal predictions: France will win gold again if they scull as they did in Varese. Switzerland in silver and Poland in bronze.
M2-
10 entries
If there’s one crew who are looking to impress at this event it’ll be the Sinkovic brothers. They have been the figureheads of the event ever since it was announced that Zagreb would be hosting a World Cup. They also happen to be the red-hot favourites to take gold. World Champions in 2019, they won the European title this year fairly comfortably. They look to be on course to become the first duo to win Olympic gold in both the M2X and M2-.
Bronze medallists in Varese were the Serbs, Martin Mackovic and Milos Vasic. They look strong this season and have qualified for Tokyo having finished 7th at the 2019 World Championships. Vasic is on course for his 3rd Olympics having raced the M4- in London and the M2- in Rio.
These two pairs should be clear of the rest of the field for gold and silver, but the battle for bronze should be a good contest. This is likely to boil down to a contest between the Spanish, French and Belarussians. Spain didn’t race at the 2021 Europeans, but their crew of Jaime Canalejo Pazos and Javier Garcia Ordonez have been racing together for the last few years and made the World Championship A-final in both 2018 and 2019. They took bronze at the 2019 Europeans and were 5th last year.
France did race at the 2021 Europeans with twins Guillaume and Thibaud Turlan. They made the A-Final in Varese and were also A-Finalists in the U23 BM2- in 2018.
Belarus, Dzimitry Furman and Siarhei Valadzko finished 9th at the Europeans and were 11th in the World in 2019 grabbing the final Olympic qualifying place.
Other crews to watch are Slovenia (Nik Krebs and Jaka Cas – 11th in Varese) and Turkey (Selahattin Gursoy and Aydin Sahin – 13that the Europeans).
Predictions……gold Croatia and silver Serbia (pretty obvious that) and then Spain to win the battle for bronze.
M4-
6 entries
A small field, and one in which the 2019 World Champions from Poland should dominate. They missed out on the podium at the Europeans, although they had one change from their 2019 World Championship crew (Lucasz Posylajka replaced Marcin Brzezinski). For Zagreb Bzrezinski returns to the to the crew, and with none of the finalists from Varese racing, it’ll be a major upset if they don’t take the gold.
France are the next highest ranked nation. They finished 7th in Varese and have the same line-up (Benoit Demey, Benoit Brunet, Thibaut Verhoeven and Dorian Mortelette) that took 5th at the 2020 Europeans. Mortelette is the most experienced athlete in this boat with three Olympic appearances and two Olympic medals to his credit. They have the challenge of having to qualify for Tokyo at the Final Olympic Qualifying Regatta next month, so will be looking to push the Poles as close as possible.
Switzerland have qualified for Tokyo by finishing 9th at the World Championships. They made one change to their 2019 crew for the European’s this year with Andrin Gulich replacing Augustin Maillefer. At Varese they had a tough semi-final and missed qualifying for the A-Final by just 4/100th of a second. In the B-Final they again had a very tight race missing out on the top spot to the French by just 7/100th of a second.
The Swiss have a 2nd crew racing in Varese with a young crew all making their senior international debuts. Nils Schneider and Patrick Brunner were in the U23 BM4- that finished 7th in 2019. Dominic Condrau also raced at the 2019 U23 World Championships placing 9th in the BM2X. The fourth member of the crew is Maurin Lange, 9th in the JM4X in 2018.
The host nation’s entry includes the young 20-year-old Loncaric twins, Anton and Patrik. They are joined by Marko Ukropina and Ivan Piton. This quartet finished 9th at the 2020 Europeans and then followed that up with 12th at this year’s Championships. They will be looking to lay down a good marker ahead of the Final Olympic Qualifying Regatta.
The final entry are from the Czech Republic. They have three athletes making their senior debuts; Stepan Eller and Matej Mach were in the U23 BM4- in 2019. Vilem Pachman raced in the U23 BM8 at the European U23 Championships last year (along with Eller and Mach). The final member of the crew is the only one with senior international experience, Jan Hajek. He raced in the LM2- at the 2019 World Championships and was U23 World Champion in the BLM2- back in 2014.
Predictions: should be a comfortable win for Poland, but the battle for silver and bronze should be a great fight between France and Switzerland 1. I’m going for the Swiss to get revenge on the French for their narrow defeat in Varese.
M4X
8 entries
Germany were notable by their absence from the recent European Championships. They have won Olympic gold at the last two Olympics, and their crew contains two members of the victorious Rio boat (Karl Schulze and Hans Gruhne). Schulze also won Olympic gold in London and Gruhne was an Olympic finalist in Beijing. Alongside these two Olympians are Tim Ole Naske and Max Appel. Naske reached the A-Final of the M1X at the 2017 world Championships and was part of the German M2X that qualified the boat for Tokyo finishing 10th at the 2019 World Championships. Appel was U23 World Champion back in 2016 and joined the quad in 2017. Since Rio the German M4X has been something of an enigma. For a nation who only missed the podium once at World and Olympic level between 2010 and 2016, their performances since have been troubling as they try and find a medal potential combination. Since 2016 the best result by a German M4X at a major championships was 4th at the 2019 Europeans. 5th at the 2019 Worlds saw them qualify the boat for Tokyo, but their chances of securing a hattrick of Olympic titles in this boat class look thin at the moment.
The form crew among the entry list are Estonia. They won bronze at the Europeans following a 4th place at the 2020 Championships. They are yet to qualify for Tokyo following a disappointing 12th at the 2019 World Championships, but will be one of the favourites to take one of the two qualifying places at the Final Olympic Qualifying Regatta. The crew has a huge amount of experience, Beijing silver medallist, Tonu Endrekson, is aiming to compete at his 5th Olympics, and Allar Raja his 4th. Kaspar Taimsoo raced in the quad with Endrekson in Rio winning a bronze medal. The 4th member of the crew is Juri-Mikk Udam; at 27 he is the “baby” of the crew – the other three’s average age is a sprightly 37! He raced in the M2X at the London Olympics.
Poland are another crew showing good form coming into this World Cup. They finished just outside of the medals at the European Championships, and their crew of Dominik Czaja Wiktor Chabel, Szymon Posnik and Fabian Baranski were World silver medallists in 2019. Chabel was a member of the Rio quad that finished 4th and since then the Polish quad has been consistently among the A-Finalists at major Championships and often as not in the hunt for medals.
If it’s Olympic experience you’re after then there’s no-one with more tenured in men’s rowing than Olaf Tufte of Norway. The two-time Olympic single scull champion is aiming for an incredible 7th Olympic Games. Tufte, along with Martin Helseth, Erik Solbakken and Jan Helvig, qualified the boat for Tokyo with a 7th place finish at the 2019 World Championships. They didn’t have the best of Championships in Varese. They just missed out on the A-Final and were in contention at the 100m mark in the B-Final before slipping back over the 2nd half finishing 6th (12th overall).
9th at the European Championships this season was the Czech Republic. Three of the crew (Jan Potucek, Tomas Sisma and Filip Sisma) were members of the U23 BM4X that finished 5th at the 2019 World Championships. The fourth member of the crew is Jan Fleissner who raced the U23 BLM1X in 2019. They won the repechage in Varese but faced a tough semi and ended up in the B-Final.
Austria also raced in the B-Final at the recent European Championships and have the same line-up that finished one place behind the Czechs (Thomas Lehner, Armin Auerbach, Julian Brabec and Joerg Auerbach). This quartet also raced at the World Championships in 2019 finishing 14th.
France have made one change to the line-up that finished 11th at the Europeans. Romain Harat replaces Charlelle Rubio. Harat makes his senior debut following a 4th place in the JM2X at the World championships in 2019.
The final crew in the field are the sole representatives from the USA and will be using Zagreb to prepare for the Final Olympic Qualifying Regatta next month. Three of the crew are making their senior international debuts, Sorin Koszyk is a two-time IRA champion with the Cornell University Lightweight Varsity. Eliot Putnam is another Cornell graduate and raced in the U23 BM8 in 2017. Charles Anderson rowed for Temple University and made the semi-finals of the Prince of Wales Challenge Cup with Schuylkill Navy at Henley in 2019. The fourth member of the crew is the only one with senior international experience, Justin Keen, he raced in the M2X in 2019 finishing 20th.
Predictions: The Germans are a bit of an unknown quantity this season, but I don’t think they’ll get gold. I’m going for Estonia ahead of Poland with the Germans a comfortable 3rd.
LM2X
10 entries
Germany (Jason Osborner and Jonathan Rommelmann) are by far and away the class of the field. They won silver at both the 2020 and 2021 European Championships and were World Championship bronze medallists in 2019. 2019 also saw them win their first Championship title together when they won gold at the Europeans that season. In 2018 Osborne won World Championship gold in the LM1X.
The only crew who may present any challenge to the Germans are Switzerland. Their duo of Jan Schaeuble and Andri Struzina finished 5th in Varese (the same result as they had in 2020).
The Swiss have a 2nd crew racing, Gian Struzina and Raphael Ahumada Ireland. The two 19-year-olds are both making their senior debuts.
Pierre Houin of France was Olympic champion in this boat class in Rio partnered by Jeremie Azou. But since Azou’s retirement the French have struggled to find a suitable replacement. At the 2021 European’s Houin was partnered by Hugo Beurey where they finished 10th. For Zagreb, France have split this pairing and partnered each with a couple of teenagers who were both in the silver medal LM4X in Varese. Houin (racing as FRA1) is partnered by 19-year-old Ferdinand Ludwig and Beurey (FRA2) is joined by another 19-year-old, Victor Marcelot.
Spain have qualified their LM2X for Tokyo courtesy of a 5th place finish at the 2019 World Championships. However, for this season they have made one change to the line-up. Manel Balastegui is joined by 18-year-old Caetano Horta Pombo. This duo finished 7th at the Europeans this season.
Turkey have two boats racing with 19-year-old debutant Sefik Cakmak joining Mert Kaan Kartal (5th in the LM4X at the 2019 Europeans) in TUR1, and another debutant, Denizhan Aydin joining Bayram Sonmez who finished 21st in this boat class in 2019, in TUR2.
The final crew in the event are Egypt. Their duo of Mohamed Kota and Ahmed Abdelaal finished 30th in 2019.
Predictions: a comfortable victory for Germany with Switzerland 1 in silver and Spain in bronze
LM1X
8 entries
Hungary’s Peter Galambos will be the clear favourite in this event. The 2021 European Champion is one of only 2 scullers in Zagreb who raced in the A-Final in Varese. The 35-year-old has been a regular on the LM1X circuit for the last 10 years and is a two-time World Championship medallist.
Hungary have a 2nd sculler racing in Zagreb, Roland Szigetti. He was a member of the LM4X that finished 4th at the 2020 Europeans and also raced in the LM2- at the 2017 World Championships.
The only other A-Finalist from Varese racing in Zagreb is Joachim Agne of Germany. He finished 5th in 2018, was a member of the LM4X that won World Championship gold and then took silver at the 2020 Europeans.
The other scullers racing are Severin Erlmoser (4th in the LM4X in Varese), Jaka Malesic of Slovenia (who last raced at the 3rd World Cup of 2019 finishing 17th in the LM2X), Lazar Penev of Bulgaria (9th in the LM1X in Varese), Peter Zelinka of Slovakia (11th in the LM2X at the 2020 Europeans) and Enes Yenepazarli of Turkey (21st in the LM2X in 2019).
Galambos should be the clear winner, with Agne in silver with Szigetti getting bronze.
So that’s it. Great to see racing and there are some very interesting combinations racing in Zagreb, but it does feel like a bit of a sideshow before the real action starts in Lucerne next month.
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