Holders: Chinese National Rowing Team, China
Entries: 4
This has the makings of being the most competitive of all the open events. The draw should see the national squad crews from Great Britain and Poland face off in the final. Poland, racing as Akademicki Zwiazek Sportowy Torun and Wloclawskie Towarzystwo Wioslarskie (will love to hear the commentators get their mouths around that one!) are one of the most outstanding crews in world rowing at the moment. Fabian Baranski, Miroslaw Zietarski, Mateusz Biskup and Dominik Czaja are the reigning World and European Champions. Czaja and Baranski were in the quad that finished fourth in Tokyo and Zietarski and Biksup raced the M2X that also made the A-Final at the Olympics. They won gold at the Varese World Cup last weekend posting a fast time of 5:35.5, just three seconds off the World’s Best Time in very neutral conditions. Poland has won this event four times and they will be coming into Henley odds-on to make it five. However, Great Britain, racing as Nottingham Rowing Club and Leander, will provide very stiff competition. They won bronze at the Varese World Cup and finished just off the podium in Bled. Callum Dixon from Twickenham Rowing Club made his international debut last season reaching the A-Final of the M1X 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. Barras is the only one of the crew with Olympic experience, he was in the quad that won GB’s first ever men’s quad Olympic medal. Haywood and Bourne raced together at the U23’s in 2019 winning the gold in the BM4X.
Canada, racing as Ridley College and Maple Bay Rowing Club, also raced at the Varese World Cup where they finished last of the nine entries. The Henley entry list shows they have made one change to the crew that raced in Varese with Daniel De Groot replacing Liam Smit (although given the entries had to be made some time ago it remains to be seen if Smit remains in the crew). Terek Been and Ryan Clegg were both members of the Canadian M8 last season that finished fifth. Steve Rosts is a University of Washington grad who raced in the single at the U23 World Championships in 2021. De Groot, a University of Princeton graduate, made his senior debut last season and raced in the M2X which finished 11th at the World Championships.
The final entry in the event is the Austrian quad, racing as Wiener Ruder Club Donauband, Austria. Their crew is Thomas Lehner and Armin Auerbach who raced in the M2X at the World Championships last season placing 20th, Paul Heindl, a former Austrian junior international, and Joerg Auerbach who raced in the quad at the European Championships in 2021. This crew won at the Bled International Regatta this season and were fourth in Duisburg.
Predictions
Poland will be the strong favourites, but Henley can be a strange beast and with the home crowd egging them on the British could well spring a surprise. I think the Poles will hang on for the win, but Nottingham/Leander should run them very, very close.
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