World Rowing Championships 2022 – Quads Preview

Photo Credit: World Rowing / Benedict Tufnell

Men’s Quad

2019 Champion: The Netherlands (Dirk Uitenbogaard, Abe Wiersma, Tone Wieten, Koen Metesmakers)

Entries: 17

The Netherlands are the defending champions in this event, but they have a completely different line-up for 2022. Jan van Der Bij, Stefan Broenink, Simon van Dorp and Finn Florijn have only raced once as a quad this season, finishing 8th at the European Championships. Nevertheless, they have a strong pedigree; Broenink was an Olympic silver medallist in the M2X, van Dorp rowed in the Tokyo M8 and Florijn the M1X. Van der Bij and Florijn have been in the quad all season; in Belgrade, they won silver (with Jacob Van Der Kirkhoff and Guillaume Kromenhoek), and in Poznan, they finished 4th (with Olympic champion Abe Wiersma on board). However, they will need to step on from their performance in Munich if they want to be among the challengers in Racice.

China showed the best early season form; their crew of Ha Zang, Xudi Yi, Zhiyu Liu and Sultan Adilijiang dominated the 1st and 2nd World Cups, taking the gold on both occasions. They slipped back to 6th in Lucerne but were without Liu, which would probably have affected their performance. Liu was World Champion in the M2X in 2019 and bronze medallist in Tokyo. Zang and Yi were members of the Chinese quad that finished 7th at the Tokyo Games. Back to their line-up from earlier in the season, they will probably start as favourites in Racice.

The primary challengers to China will likely be Italy and Poland; these two crews have been neck and neck all season. The Italians (Nicolo’ Carucci, Andrea Panizza, Luca Chiumento & Giacomo Gentili) won the European Championships ahead of Poland and were 2nd to the Poles in Lucerne. Panizza and Gentili were both quad members that finished 5th in Tokyo. Carucci was u23 silver medallist in 2021 and Chiumento was U23 World Champion in 2019.

Poland is represented by Dominik Czaja, Mateusz Biskup, Miroslaw Zietarski & Fabian Baranski. They are a highly experienced quartet; all four raced at the Tokyo Olympics, Biskup & Zietarski in the M2x and the others in the M4X. Biskup and Zietarski were also in the quad that finished 4th in Rio. At the 2019 Worlds, Czaja and Baranski finished 2nd in the M4X, and Biskup & Zietarski took bronze in the M2X. In addition, as mentioned above, they have gold from the Lucerne World Cup and silver in Munich this season.

Romania has picked up two bronze medals this season, at Lucerne and the European Championships. Their crew includes Tokyo Olympians Ciprian Tudosa (silver medallist in the M2-), Ioan Prundeanu and Marian Enache (9th in the M2X). The 4th member of the crew is Mihai Chiruta (23rd in the M1X in 2019). They have an outside chance at making the podium.

Great Britain won an historic silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics (GB’s first ever Olympic M4X medal). They have two of that crew back this season, Tom Barras and Harry Leask. George Bourne and Matt Haywood join them. The British have struggled to find a combination that worked. At the start of the season, Barras and Leask raced with Sam Meijer and Seb Devereaux (both multiple U23 World Champions), but the crew failed to fire, failing to make the A-Final in Belgrade. Bourne and Haywood spent the start of the season racing as the GB M2X with reasonable success, finishing 4th in Belgrade and 5th in Lucerne. But, the Europeans moved into the quad, and this boat showed signs that they had finally found a competitive combination, taking 4th in Munich. It will be interesting to see what progress this crew has made in the intervening time and whether they can be challenging for the medals, my instinct says they will be an A-Final crew but not challenging for the podium.

Estonia finished 5th at the European Championship with their crew of Mikhail Kushteyn, Alla Raja, Tonu Endrekson and Johann Poolak. 43-year-old Endrekson and 39-year-old Raja have been fixtures on the international rowing scene since the early 2000s. Endrekson made his senior debut in 2000 and has competed at the last 5 Olympic Games, including an M2X silver in Beijing and M4X bronze in Rio. Raja made his senior debut in 2004 and has “just” the 4 Olympic appearances to his credit (he was also a member of the bronze medal M4X in Rio). Poolak and Kushteyn are relative international novices; Poolak made his debut in 2020 and Kushteyn in 2021. They both competed in the M2X last season but missed out on qualification for the Olympics. As well as a 5th place at the Europeans this season, the Estonians claimed silver at the Poznan World Cup and were 7th in Lucerne.

Other crews to watch include Lithuania (Zygimantas Galisankis, Dominykas Jancionis, Giedrius Bieliauskas & Aurimas Adomavicius), 3rd in Belgrade and 7th in Munich. Ukraine (Mykola Kalashnyk, Pavlo Yurchenko, Olexandr Nadtoka & Ivan Dovgodko) 4th in Lucene and 9th in Munich, and France (Valentin and Theo Onfroy, Benoit Brunet and Victor Marcelot) 5th in Lucerne and6th at the Europeans.

My picks: with China back to full strength, it’s hard to pick against them. China in gold, with Poland getting the better of Italy in the battle for silver and bronze.

Women’s Quad

2019 Champions: China (Yunxia Chen, Ling Zhang, Yang Lyu & Xiaotong Cui)

Entries: 14

The last time the same nation won the Men’s and women’s quads at the World Championship was 2002. This year China has a strong chance of achieving that feat. They have the same line-up racing in Racice that won the World title in 2019 and Olympic gold in Tokyo (Yunxia Chen, Ling Zhang, Yang Lyu & Xiaotong Cui). This season the Chinese team has been racing in various combinations and won gold at the Poznan and Lucerne World Cups and silver in Belgrade. Racice will be the first time the Olympic quad has raced this season.

Great Britain missed out on the Olympics, and for most of the Tokyo Olympiad, they struggled to find a combination that could consistently challenge for the medals, the high point of the Olympiad was a bronze at the Sarasota World Championships in 2017. However, that looks to have changed this season. Their crew of Jess Leyden, Lola Anderson, Georgie Brayshaw and Lucy Glover showed promise at the 1st World Cup with 4th but then stepped up in Lucerne (with Kyra Edwards racing in place of Anderson) to take the silver. But the season’s highlight was the Europeans; with Anderson back in the boat, they crushed the opposition, leading by over 5 seconds at the 1500m mark. Their win sent a definite message to the Chinese that they would have a fight on their hands for the gold and that the British would be the leading European boat in Racice.

The Netherlands is, so far, the only nation to have beaten the Chinese this season (albeit not the Chinese line-up that will race in Racice). Their boat is Nika Vos, Tessa Dullemans, Ilse Kolkman and Bente Paulis. As well as taking victory at the Belgrade World Cup, the Dutch took bronze in Poznan and were runners-up to the British in Munich.

Switzerland has never won a World Championship medal in this event. Still, their crew this season (Salome Ulrich, Lisa Loetscher, Pascale Walker & Celia Dupre) has an outside chance of changing that. Ulrich, Loetscher and Dupre were all members of the U23 BW4x that won gold in 2021. Walker is a former U23 medallist who raced in the W2x at the 2019 World Championships. This season as a quad, they’ve won silver at Poznan (Switzerland’s first World Cup medal in this event since 2010) and then 4th at the Europeans. A medal is a long shot but not impossible for this talented young crew.

Australia has two of the crew that won bronze in Tokyo, Harriet Hudson and Rowena Meredith. Amanda Bateman is also a Tokyo Olympian, having raced in the W2x that finished 7th. The final member of their crew is Kathryn Rowan (she made one senior appearance before this season, racing in the W8 at the Lucerne World Cup in 2018). They’ve run once this season, finishing 4th at the Poznan World Cup (with Georgie Gleeson racing in place of Bateman). Unfortunately, illness forced the quad to withdraw from Lucene, but Meredith and Rowan raced in the W2x, finishing 6th. We’ve definitely not seen this crew racing to their potential this season, and they could well be the dark horses in Racice.

Poland were silver medallists in 2019 and also won silver at the Tokyo Olympics. This year, two of that crew are back, Marta Wieliczko and Katarzyna Zillmann. Joanna Dittmann is another Tokyo Olympian, having raced in the W4- that finished 6th. The 4th member of the crew is Katarzyna Boruch; she made her debut in 2019 and was in the W4X that won bronze at the 2020 European Championships. This season they have raced twice as a unit, finishing 6th in Belgrade and 4th in Lucerne. They are another crew that could well make the A-Final but are unlikely to be challenging for the medals.

Ukraine (Daryna Verkhogliad, Nataliya Dovgodko, Kateryna Dudchenko & Yevheniia Dovhodko) were bronze medallists at the European Championships. Earlier in the season, they also won bronze at the Belgrade World Cup (with Anastasiia Kozhenkova racing in place of Dudchenko). Verkhogliad and Dovhodko raced in the W2x at the 2019 Worlds (placing 4th in the C-Final), and Dovgodko and Dudchenko were in the W4- that also finished in the C-Final. An A-Final placing is well within their talents, but I don’t think they will be fighting for the medals.

Romania has selected a young crew, with three of their silver medalU23 BW4X from this year, Emanuela-ioana Ciotau, Cristina Druga & Patricia Cires. The 4th member of the crew is Ioana-Madalina Morosan, who was U23 World Champion in the BW4+ in 2021. This season, Morosan raced in the W8 that won bronze in Lucerne, and the other three raced in the quad (with Iulia-Liliana Balauca) that finished 5th in Lucerne and 8th at the Europeans. Therefore, they probably won’t quite make the A-Final in Racice but will be a young crew to watch over the next few years.

Italy has only ever made the world Championship A-Final twice in this event (6th in 2013 and 4th in 2009). However, they stand a decent chance of making that three times in 2022. They have two crew that finished 4th in Tokyo, Alessandra Montesano and Valentina Iseppi. Silvia Terrazi and Clara Guerra join them. The Italians raced at Lucerne and the Europeans (both times with Chiara Ondoli instead of Terrazi), winning bronze in Lucerne and finishing 5th in Munich. Terrazi raced in the W4- in Poznan and Lucerne before moving to the W8 for the Europeans. She’s no stranger to the quad, having raced in this boat at the 2018 World Championships.

New Zealand has two of the crew that finished 5th in his boat class in 2019, Kirstyn Goodger and Hannah Osborne. Osborne went on to race in the W2x in Tokyo, winning a silver medal with Brooke Donoghue. Racice will be Osborne’s first race since those Olympic Games. The Kiwis have been racing the quad this season; Kate Haines and Stella Clayton-Greene (along with Kristen Froude and Charlotte Spencer) finished 8th in Poznan and 7th in Lucerne. Goodger has been racing in the single this season and took 14th in Poznan and 16th in Lucerne.

The USA has a crew of four athletes, all making their World Championship debuts, Margaret Fellows, Savannah Brija, Emily Delleman and Emily Kallfez. Kallfelz won silver in the BW1X at the 2019 U23 World Championships and Delleman was 7th in the BW2x the same year. This duo raced as a W2X at the Poznan World Cup, finishing 5th. Fellows made her international debut at the Poznan World Cup, placing 9th in the W1X. A young crew still very much in development, the Worlds will be a good experience as they build towards Paris and beyond.

Lithuania has decided to double-up their promising W2X (Donate Karaliene and Dovile Rimkute) into the quad for the World Championships. They were bronze medallists in the double in Lucerne and 4th at the Europeans. Karaliene is a former World Champion in the double and was 4th in Tokyo and won bronze in that boat at the Rio Games. They are joined by Viktorija Senkute and Ieva Adomaviciute. Senkute raced the single this season with the best finish of5th at the Belgrade World Cup, and Adomaviciute makes her first appearance since finishing 9th in the W2X in 2019. The Worlds will be the first appearance of this quad as a crew, and with 2 of them doubling up, it will be a tough ask to make an impact.

The final two crews racing are Germany and the Czech Republic. There was a time when Germany would be nailed-on favourites for this event (between 1985 and 2014, a German crew has won the World title 16 times). However, in recent years the pickings have been decidedly slimmer, with just two silver medals (2015 and 2018). This season they have a new and relatively inexperienced crew based around their 2021 U23 silver medallists Sarah Wibberenz and Tabea Kuhnert. They are joined by former lightweight international Sophie Krause and fellow U23 international Sophie Leupold. This quartet have been racing in a variety of boats this season, but as a quad, they have 6th place finishes at the Poznan and Lucerne World Cups and also at the Europeans.

The Czech Republic has Barbora Podrazilova, Alzbeta Zavadilova, Eliska Podrazilova and Simona Paskova. This is a young crew who all raced at the U23 World Championships this season, finishing 4th. They also raced at the Poznan World Cup, finishing 9th of the nine crews entered.

My picks: A full-strength China look hard to beat, but on the evidence of what we saw from the British in Munich, they could run them very close indeed. I think China will just get the better of the British, with the Netherlands taking the bronze.

Lightweight Men’s Quad

2019 champions: China (Zhiyuan Zhang, Sensen Chen, Fanpu Lyu & Tao Zeng)

Entries: 5

Not much form to go on in this event, the LM4X has been raced at the Europeans and the Lucerne World Cup, but on both occasions, it was a two-boat event.

China are the defending champions, and they have one member of that crew racing again this season, Sensen Chen. He’s joined by Guoqiang Zhao, whose one international appearance to date was a 9th place in the LM2X at the 3rd World Cup of 2017, Yule Ma, who was a member of the Chinese U23 team in 2018, and debutant Xuke Jiang.

Italy were victorious against Germany at the European Championships this season, and they have three of that crew racing in Racice, Antonio Vicino, Niels Torre and Patrick Rocek. The 4th member of the crew is 2021 U23 bronze medallist Alessandro Benzoni. Vicino and Rocek are both something of LM4X specialists, having won this event at the European Championships for the last three years.

Germany won the only other time this event has been raced this season, beating the Netherlands at the Lucerne World Cup. Johannes Ursprung, Simon Klueter, Fabio Kress and Joachim Agne were runners-up to the Italians at the Europeans finishing 8 seconds adrift.

Spain has selected a young crew to race in Racice. Antonio Diaz Ramos and Jorge Knab were 5th in the BLM2X at this year’s U23 World Championships, and Dennis Carracedo was 4th in the BLM4X the year before. The 4th member of the crew is the most experienced, Daniel Gutierrez Garcia. He’s been racing in the LM1X all season and has a best finish of 4th in Belgrade.  

The final crew in the event are the USA. All four of the crew (Sean Richardson, Ian Richardson, Ashton Knight & Mats Terwiesch) are making their international debuts. They are all members of Riverside Boat Club in Boston and raced at the Holland Beker, finishing 2nd to the Netherlands M4X in Open M4X and 4th in the LM4X.

My picks: Difficult to make a pick with so little to go on…..Ummm….Italy ahead of China, with Germany in bronze.

Lightweight Women’s Quad 

2019 Champions: Italy (Giulia Mignemi, Greta Martinelli, Silvia Crosio, Arianna Noseda)

Entries: Two

I’m sure World Rowing will be disappointed that only two countries have chosen to enter this event, it does raise questions as to the future of this event at a World Championship level, but given the demise of lightweight sculling as an Olympic event after Paris, it is perhaps not surprising that nations are shepherding their limited resources away from the lightweights….which is a pity.

Anyway..the two crews racing are Italy and the USA.

Italy has the same line-up that won the title back in 2019. They have been racing together as a crew for a number of years and are also the 2019 U23 World Champions and European Champions in 2020 and 2022.

The USA is represented by Audrianna Boersen, Cara Stawicki, Elizabeth Martin and Sarah Maietta. Like their male counterparts, they raced at the Holland Beker this year, finishing 4th in the LW4X. In addition, they raced at Henley Women’s Regatta, going out in the 2nd round of Open Quads. Stawicki is no stranger to the international rowing circuit; she won gold in the LW2- at the 2019 World Championships. Maietta was a member of the US U23 team in 2018, winning gold in the BLW2-.

My picks: With only one medal on offer, it will be tough on the loser; I’m picking Italy to take the win and successfully defend their title.

About The Author