Holders: F.McCarthy & P.O’Donovan Ireland
Entries: 25 (to be reduced to 12 by qualifying races)
The Stewards have pre-qualified 10 crews in this event, and it promises to be a good contest with no clear favourite. The home crowd will be cheering on the British M2X of Matt Haywood and George Bourne (racing as Nottingham Rowing Club and The Tideway Scullers School). This duo finished just outside of the medals at the first World Cup in Belgrade earlier this season. Both were members of the U23 World Championship gold medal BM4X from 2019. Haywood raced in the M1X in 2021 placing ninth at the European Championships. Bourne made his senior debut at the Sabaudia World Cup last year finishing eighth in the M1X.
The main challengers to the British are likely to be Australia, Caleb Antill and Jack Cleary. They raced at the second World Cup in Poznan winning a bronze medal. They were both members of the Olympic bronze medal quad from Tokyo. Cleary made his senior debut in Tokyo having previously raced on the U23 team winning a bronze in the BM4+ at the 2016 U23 world Championships. Antill raced in the double at the 2019 World Championships, finishing 12th.
Behind these two heavyweight national squads doubles it looks like there will be a fascinating battle of the lightweights with New Zealand, Great Britain, Australia and the USA all entering their LM2X crews. Matt Dunham and Chris Stockley (racing as Waiariki Rowing Club) are the New Zealand LM2X (although they’ve not raced as such so far this season). Dunham raced in the LM1X at the Poznan World Cup winning the gold. Stockley was a member of the U23 BLM2X that finished eighth at the World Championships in 2019. Great Britain are represented by Jamie Copus and Dale Flockhart (racing as Edinburgh University and Oxford Brookes University). They competed on the domestic circuit this season winning at the Metropolitan Regatta and will also be racing at the Holland Beker this weekend. Jamie is a long serving member of the British squad having made his senior debut back in 2015. Flockhart raced for the British U23 team at the 2018 World Championships.
The USA lightweights, Jaspar Liu and Zach Hesse (racing as Texas Rowing Centre) were fifth at the Poznan World Cup and in 2021 missed qualification for Tokyo at the Final Olympic Qualifying Regatta.
Australia’s Lightweight double are Redmond Matthews and Hamish Harding. They also raced at the Poznan World Cup finishing 13th. Matthews made his senior debut in 2013 and was a member of the Australian LM4X at the 2017 World Championships. Harding, from the Australian National University Boat Club, made his international debut in Poznan.
Behind these National squad boats there are a number of interesting combinations that have been pre-qualified. The most interesting looks to be the Aviron Grenoblois & Algemene Skoll duo of Guillaume Turlan and Wibout Rustenburg, an unlikely Franco-Dutch combination. They will be racing at the Holland Beker this weekend. Turlan raced at the Tokyo Olympics with his twin brother in the M2- finishing ninth and in 2019 raced in the M4X at the World Championships. Rustenburg raced in the M4- at the first World Cup this season and was also a member of the Netherlands U23 BM8 that won bronze in 2019.
Leander Club have two doubles entered, with one pre-qualified and the other needing to race on Friday. The pre-qualified boat is Victor Kleshnev and James Cartwright. Both of these athletes are US-based, Kleshnev is studying at Harvard and Cartwright at Northeastern. Both raced at the recent IRA Championships with Cartwright finishing eighth in the Varsity Eights and Kleshnev eighth in the second Varsity. This duo raced together at the 2019 U23 World Championships finishing seventh The second Leander boat (that is required to qualify) is Alex King and Matt Brigham; they might feel slightly hard done by in having to qualify having won Championship Doubles at Marlow Regatta and finished second behind Copus and Flockhart at the Metropolitan Regatta. Brigham will live long in the annuls of Henley history having defeated six-time Diamonds winner and two-time Olympic champion Mahe Drysdale in 2019.
Another pre-qualified boat is that of Nereus & Triton – Boris Mulder and Niels Boonstra. They raced at the Bosbaan regatta in April finishing second in the Championship Doubles and will also be racing at the Holland Beker. Mulder raced in the Netherlands U23 BM8 last season finishing fifth.
The final pre-qualified boat is the Washington pairing of Adam Krol and Steve Rosts. They were both members of the Canadian U23 team at the World Championships in 2021. Rosts finished 14th in the BM1X and Krol won gold in the BM4-. They also raced in the Huskies first Varsity crew at the IRA Championships that finished fourth.
Qualifying will see three spots available for the remaining sixteen crews. As mentioned above, the Leander pairing of Brigham and King will be confident of gaining one of those places with the Twickenham Rowing Club double of Nathan Hull and Aidan Thompson likely to be in the running for the second spot having finished as runners-up at Marlow. A special shout out to the youngsters from Weybridge Rowing Club, Nick Didaskalou and Cullen Ross, who finished seventh at Marlow. They are unlikely to make the main draw, but as J17’s they have a bright future ahead of them.
Predictions: Should be a good battle between Australia and the GB heavyweight double – I’m going for a win for Haywood and Bourne.
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