For U23 hopefuls, February trials represents an important stepping stone towards eventual selection for the World Championship squad. A great result here doesn’t guarantee anything – particularly given the wealth of British talent currently studying in the USA that won’t be in attendance. Performing well here is certainly important, however, and it’s also a great opportunity to see how close to current Caversham squad athletes the younger guys can get.
This preview will focus on who I believe will be the top few crews in the event. I’m choosing to feature any crew with at least one U23, even if the partner is a facilitator, as some of these boats feature guys that already have U23 international experience that will no doubt be in contention for selection this summer.
Ollie Parish & Luca Ferraro (Cambridge University BC)
Parish and Ferraro took everyone by surprise this time last year with a win at 2022 February Trials over all other U23 pairs – all the more impressive given Ferraro was U21 at the time. They went on to have a fantastic season, both making Cambridge’s Blue Boat and the U23 Worlds team in the Men’s Pair. They fared well at the World Championships in Varese against a really stacked field, making the A-Final and taking home a sixth place finish.
This season they seem to have picked up right where they left off. Another U23 win at November trials 2022 (and an impressive fifth place overall) has established them as firm favourites here. They’ll have to fend off challenges from a number of talented pairs this weekend, but I’d expect the CUBC boys to take it in their stride and throw down a great performance.
James Forward & Jean-Philippe Dufour (Oxford University BC)
Parish and Ferraro’s rivals, Forward and Dufour will be looking to see if they can overturn their small losing margin from November trials (they were second U23 pair, sixth overall, less than a second back on the CUBC pair). Dufour is a facilitator here, but is an accomplished rower in his own right; a Henley winner and two-time Oxford Blue.
Forward has performed well since joining OUBC; he earned a Blue in his first year, losing in the 2021 Boat Race, but won the 2022 Isis/Goldie race and is the current OUBC Vice President. He’ll be keen to win a GB vest this summer, and this pair will certainly have the speed to keep Forward in contention.
Jake Wincomb & Fergus Woolnough (Oxford Brookes University BC)
There are a few Brookes pairs entered here, and no doubt they will all be fiercely competitive. Without any real notion of who Brookes’ form pair is at the moment, I’d hazard a guess and say that the Wincomb/Woolnough pair is probably their fastest unit. Wincomb particularly has proven himself a formidable athlete, winning Henley last year in Brookes’ stellar Temple eight before earning a seat at both the U23 World and European Championships (winning a gold in the Men’s Eight in Varese).
Woolnough is a younger athlete that saw significant success as a junior sculler at Gloucester Hartpury; no doubt he’s already been massively developed as part of the Brookes programme. Watch out for this pair.
Toby Lassen & Gareth Syphas (Oxford Brookes University BC)
Lassen and Syphas will be a really technical unit that could go very quickly over the long Boston course. Facilitator Syphas has been a Brookes mainstay for several years now and is always dependable; Lassen is a real up-and-comer who’s rise to the upper echelons of British U23 rowing is testament to the unparalleled development that the Brookes programme offers.
Last season, Lassen was part of the incredibly impressive Brookes eight that took the Temple Challenge Cup by storm at Henley, and was selected for the U23 European Championships in the eight, winning a great bronze in the stroke seat. He’ll be eyeing World Championships selection this year, and is certainly well on his way. These guys might not win outright, but I can see them getting pretty close.
Blaise Ivers-Dreux & Marco Tognazzi (Oxford Brookes University BC)
Ivers-Dreux and Tognazzi were both part of the exceptional Brookes PA coxed four that won Henley against some stiff competition last year. They’re both fantastic athletes that will want to really challenge here. They didn’t have the best run of it back in November, finishing tenth out of the U23 pairs, so they’ll be looking to right some wrongs here. Their pedigree in the bigger boats can’t be discounted, so I’d certainly suggest that they are ones to keep an eye on.
Jacopo Bertone & Levin Graf (Durham University BC)
It’s difficult to know with a lot of these pairs who is likely to perform, given the general lack of results for many, and the fact that the pair can be such a fickle boat, where performance can vary quite dramatically from day to day, or in different conditions. With not a huge amount to go on for this Durham pair, I’d still suggest that they could be dark horses here.
Levin Graf – the U23 in the unit – is a really strong athlete that won selection for the U23 European Rowing Championships in the Men’s Quad last year. He’s joined by Bertone, an experienced postgraduate Italian who has a wealth of international experience for Italy at both junior and U23 level, and was an integral part of Syracuse’s rise in the USA collegiate circuit over the past couple of years. These guys will certainly enter with some big ambitions, and I expect a great performance from them.
Robbie Prosser & Jake Birch (University of Bristol BC)
Another pair with no prior results to their name but nonetheless coming in with high expectations, Prosser and Birch may well be one of the best pairs that Bristol has fielded in some time. Birch is a fresher at Bristol but was really successful as a junior, rowing at Shiplake and earning a seat in the GB Junior Men’s Eight in Varese that won gold.
His partner, Prosser, is one of the finest rowers that Bristol has seen, spearheading a real upsurge in performance from the university during his time there while also seeing huge personal success: he won gold at U23s in the Men’s Coxed Four last year, setting a new world record in the process, and also rowed in the Men’s Eight at the U23 European Championships. This could be a really quick unit.
Cameron Spiers & Brett Taylor (Cambridge University BC)
Spiers and Taylor are Cambridge’s second pair, and will be going into this trial likely in great form, given the Boat Race is fast approaching on the horizon. Spiers is a really successful athlete – a St Paul’s rower who rowed at Junior Worlds in the Junior Men’s Eight back in 2019 before becoming a fixture of some great Goldie crews at Cambridge, he’ll be really keen to crack into the U23 squad in his last year of trialling. Taylor has really exceptional sculling form; he was one of the top scullers in his age group as a junior, and represented Chinese Taipei at the 2019 Junior World Championships, making the A-Final. He’s now eyeing selection for the CUBC Blue Boat as well as the British U23 team. These guys did well in November trials, coming home sixth out of the U23 pairs; they’ll be keen to step on here.
Prediction
There is a lot of talent in this field, so picking a finish order is tricky. That being said, I’m going to go with Parish & Ferraro for the top spot – their experience in the boat class together will really be a difference-maker. I think Forward & Dufour will likely take second, but for third, it’s really anyone’s guess. It would be fantastic if Bertone & Graf or Prosser & Birch could sneak in here, but any one of the Oxford Brookes pairs will make that very difficult. There are a host of other pairs that I haven’t even touched on from some great programs, including Newcastle, UL and Edinburgh – any of them might produce an upset. This should be a really exciting contest.
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