2021 World Rowing Cup III – Women’s Preview

Now time to look at the women’s Olympic class events at the Sabaudia World Cup.

Women’s Single

Fifteen scullers

Four scullers are Tokyo-bound, but unlike the men’s event, none of the “big” names are racing. Thus, this presents an excellent opportunity for some different characters to get on the podium.

Probably the favourite for the gold will be Sophie Souwer of the Netherlands. She was a world championship bronze medallist in the W4X in 2018 and 2019 and raced in the W8 at the Rio Olympics. This season she competed in the single at the European Championships, reaching the A-Final. At the Lucerne World Cup, she won gold in the W4-. Although the Netherlands are yet to formally announce their Olympic team, Souwer will likely be their single sculler in Tokyo.

The Netherlands also have a 2nd sculler racing, Lisanne Brandsma. She made her debut in 2017, and so far, all of her international experience has been in sweep boats (including gold in the W8 at the 1st World Cup of 2019). Since the 2019 World Championships, she’s not raced, and Sabaudia will be her first international sculling race.

The primary challenger to Souwer will most likely be Pia Greiten of Germany. She was a member of the German W8 that missed qualification for Tokyo after finishing 3rd at the Final Olympic Qualifying Regatta. She has U23 World Championship medals from 2017 and 2018 and was 15th in the W2X at the 2019 World Championships. In addition, she raced in the single at the 2020 European Championships, reaching the A-Final.

Another medal contender is Diana Dymchenko of Ukraine. She was 12th in the World in 2019 and finished in an Olympic qualifying spot at the European Qualifying Regatta, but Ukraine chose their LM2X over the W1X. At the Final Olympic Qualifying Regatta, she finished 4th and just missed out on an Olympic spot. Her best result in the single was a bronze medal at the 2018 European Championships, and at this year’s Europeans, she reached the A-Final, placing 6th overall.

Great Britain has two scullers racing. GBR1 is Lola Anderson, the Newcastle University graduate and Leander Club member was U23 World Champion in the BW4X in 2019 and is making her senior international debut in Sabaudia. GBR2 is Kathryn Wilkinson-Feller. The Tideway Scullers athlete is also making her senior international debut and previously raced at the European U23 Championships. She’s also raced at Henley Royal Regatta, losing to Dymchenko in the Princess Royal Challenge Cup in 2018.

Italy also has a couple of scullers entered. Italy 1 is the young Linda de Filippis, making her senior international debut. She raced in the JW8 at the 2017 Junior World Championships that finished 5th. Italy 2 is the slightly more experienced Elisa Mondelli. She finished 10th in the BW4- at the 2019 U23 World Championships and this season made her senior debut at the European Championships finishing 14th in the W1X.

Another Tokyo-bound athlete is Lovisa Claesson of Sweden. She was 15th in 2019 and 13th at the 2020 European Championships. 4th place at the European Qualifying Regatta wasn’t initially enough to grab a place for Tokyo. Still, with the countries with Ukraine not taking the place, Dymchenko won, she got bumped up into the final qualifying spot. She raced at both the first 2 World Cups, taking 4th in Zagreb (her best result as a senior athlete) and then 13th in Lucerne.

Racing for Switzerland is Fabienne Schweizer; she’s been racing in the quad this season and finished 9th at the European Championships and then finished 3rd in a three-boat final at the Zagreb World Cup.

Other scullers racing are Denmark’s Astrid Steensberg (11th in the W8 in 2019), France’s Audrey Feutrie – making her senior debut after racing in the U23 BW8 in 2018, Jenny Rorvik of Norway (who didn’t progress beyond the repechage at the Final Olympic Qualifying Regatta) and Veronica Toro Arana of Puerto Rico. She qualified for Tokyo at the Americas Qualifying Regatta.

My picks: Sophie Souwer in gold with Dymchenko in silver, and I’m picking Lola Anderson to make the podium on her debut.

Women’s Double

Seven crews

This is another event where it looks potentially a two-boat race for the gold with the other boats fighting for the bronze. Again, the Netherlands look to be the leading crew, Roos de Jong & Lisa Scheenaard are the World Championship bronze medallists. Last season they picked up a silver medal at the European Championships, and this season they took 4th at the Europeans and then silver in Lucerne.

Battling the Dutch for the gold is Germany. Annekatrin Thiele and Leonie Menzel came together as a double in 2020 finishing 5th. They followed that up with another 5th place at the 2021 Europeans. After that, they raced at the Final Olympic Qualifying Regatta and secured their place in Tokyo with 2nd place behind Russia. Thiele is one of the most experienced athletes at the regatta; the 36-year-old already has three Olympic medals to her name. Menzel, 15 years Thiele’s junior, won silver at the U23 World Championships in 2018 and senior European gold in 2019. Unfortunately, the World Championships were a disappointment for Menzel, as the German W2X could only finish 15th. But, with Olympic qualification being secured, they will be keen to test themselves against the Dutch.

Germany has a 2nd boat racing which contains two former U23 athletes making their senior debuts. Lena Osterkamp raced in the U23 BW8 in 2019 and her partner is Laura Kampmann who won silver in the BW4X at the 2019 U23 World Championships

Italy has two boats racing and could well be doing some last-minute testing for the Olympic spots. Racing as ITA1 are Stefania Buttignon and Clara Guerra. They raced together at the Lucerne World Cup, reaching the A-Final. Buttignon is a former U23 World Champion and has raced in the double for the last three seasons, winning bronze at the 2019 European Championships. 7th in 2019 was enough to secure Olympic qualification. Guerra won bronze in the U23 BW1X in 2019 and raced in the W4X at the 2019 World Championships and again at both the 2020 and 2021 Europeans before moving into the double with Buttignon for Lucerne.

ITA2 are Alessandra Patelli and Chiara Ondoli. They were both members of the W4- for the past few years, but a 3rd place at the Final Olympic Qualifying Regatta saw them miss out on a spot in Tokyo. Whether they can get the better of their teammates and take the W2X slot remains to be seen.

Poland is the reigning Olympic champion in this boat class but will not have a crew in Tokyo to defend their title. Instead, they have a new crew racing in Sabaudia, looking to rebuild ahead of Tokyo. Katarzyna Boruch and Izabela Galek were both members of the 2018 U23 BW4X. Boruch went on to race in the senior W4X at the European championships in 2020, taking a bronze medal and then 7th at this year’s Europeans. Galek makes her senior debut in Sabaudia after another year in the U23 quad in 2019.

The final crew racing is Switzerland. Ella von der Schulenburg and Pascale Walker have been racing in the quad all season, taking 9th at the Europeans, 3rd out of 3 in Zagreb and 5th in Lucerne.

My picks: The Netherlands ahead of Germany with Italy 1 in bronze.

Women’s Pair

Seven crews

Seven boats from five nations. The top boat in this event looks to be the Danes, Hedvig Rasmussen and Fie Udby Erichsen. Erichsen is the most experienced athlete in the field and made her international debut before some of her opponents were even born! She was an Olympic silver medallist at the London Games and also raced in Rio. A 10th place in the W1X in 2019 saw her miss out on Olympic qualification, but she moved into the pair after the 2021 Europeans and, together with Rasmussen, secured qualification in that boat at the FOQR. Rasmussen raced in the pair at the Rio Olympics, winning a bronze medal and spent 2019 onwards in the W4- picking up a bronze medal at the World Championships.

The Danes are the only Olympic crew racing in this event, and their main challenge will probably come from the young Croatian pair of Ivana and Josipa Jurkovic. They were junior world champions in 2017 and raced in the W4- in 2019. They moved back into the pair at the start of the 2021 season and have had a strong year. 5th place at the Europeans was followed by gold at the first World Cup (the first gold medal for Croatian women’s rowing). They had firm hopes of qualifying for Tokyo at the FOQR but came up just short. They will undoubtedly be stronger contenders by the time the Paris Games come round.

Another medal contender is Italy 1, Kiri Tontodonati and Aisha Rocek. Tontodonati was in the Italian W2- that finished 11th at the Rio Olympics. She and Rocek have been racing in the W4- this season but failed to qualify for Tokyo.

Italy 2 are a combination of youth and experience. Ludovica Serafini raced in the W4X from 2018-2020 before moving into the W8 for the 2021 European Championships. At the Lucerne World Cup, she raced in the double scull with Carmela Pappalardo that finished 7th. Her partner for Sabaudia is teenager Clara Massaria; she makes her senior debut after picking up a bronze medal in the JW8 at the 2019 Junior World Championships.

Great Britain also has two boats racing. GBR1 contains Heidi Long and Alice Davies. Long, a member of Leander Club is a two-time U23 World Championship medallist and studied at the University of Virginia. She made her senior debut in 2019, racing in a GB development W8 at the final World Cup. Her partner, Davies, also raced in that W8 at the 3rd World Cup of 2019. Like Long, she’s also a member of Leander Club and raced at the 2018 U23 World Championships, having learned to row at Bristol University.

GBR2 contains Sam Redgrave and Susannah Dear. Redgrave learnt to row at the University of East Anglia and is now a member of Leander Club and raced in the GB development W8 in 2019 that won at Duisberg and Henley Women’s Regatta. However, injury saw her miss out on her 1st World Cup appearance in 2019. Dear is another Leander Club athlete and won silver in the W2- at the 2018 World University Championships. She was another member of the GB development W8 that raced at the final World Cup of 2019.

The final crew entered are the Czechs, Anna Santruckova and Pavlina Flamikova, 8th at the European Championships this season and silver medallists at the Zagreb World Cup. 5th at the FOQR meant they missed Olympic qualification, and then in Lucerne, they finished 5th.

My picks: Denmark to win comfortably ahead of Croatia and then a good battle for bronze between Italy 1, the Czech’s and the two British boats, and I reckon GBR1 might get it.

Women’s Four

Five crews

This is one of the most competitive women’s events at the regatta, with three of the A-Finalists from this year’s European championships.

For the last few years, the Netherlands has been the leading European crew in this event, winning silver at the 2019 World Championships and have been unbeaten since taking gold at the 2020 and 2021 European Championships and again in Lucerne.

Denmark were World Championship bronze medallists in 2019. However, since then, they have struggled to recapture that sort of medal-winning speed. As a result, 4th at the 2020 Europeans was followed by 8th in 2021. With Rasmussen moving to the W2- she was replaced by Trine Dahl Pedersen who joins Ida Jacobsen, Frida Sanggaard Nielsen and Christina Johansen. Their first race in this combination was in Lucerne, where they finished 6th out of six entries. They will be looking for improved performance in Sabaudia and a return to the podium.

Poland finished one place behind the Danes at the 2019 World Championships. Since the start of the 2017 season, their crew has remained mostly unchanged and includes Olympians Monika Chabel (bronze in the W4X) and Maria Wierzbowska (10th in the W2-). 

Olga Michalkiewicz and Joanna Dittmann join them. Poland were world silver medallists back in 2017. So far this season, they’ve had a mixed bag of performances, The European Championships were a disappointment with 9th place, but Lucerne was more potent with a solid 4th. Like Denmark, they will also be hoping for improved performance and a medal in Sabaudia.

Both Italy and Great Britain have development crews racing. Italy include three of the U23 BW4+ that won World Championship gold in 2019 (Benedetta Faravelli, Laura Meriano and Giorgia Pelacchi). The 4th member of the crew is Silvia Terrazzi; she was a member of the senior W4X that finished 8th at the 2019 World Championships. All four of these athletes raced in the Italian W8 that finished 6th at this year’s European Championships.

Great Britain’s crew also contains 2019 U23 World Champions. Lauren Irwin and Hope Cessford won gold as part of the U23 BW4- last year. Esme Booth also raced at the U23 World’s finishing 7th in the BW2-. The final member of the crew is Daisy Bellamy, the 20-year-old Henley Rowing Club and Oxford Brookes University rower who is making her international debut in Sabaudia.

My picks: The Netherlands should win comfortably, with Poland in silver and Denmark in bronze (and I reckon GB will win the contest of the development boats).

Women’s Quad

Eleven crews

Another extremely competitive event with the 2nd, 3rd and 4th placed crews from the 2019 World Championships (Poland, the Netherlands and Germany).

Germany is the reigning Olympic champion but has an entirely different crew for this Olympiad (Daniela Schultze, Carlotta Nwajide, Freda Haemmerling and Franziska Kampmann). Since Rio, they’ve not had the dominance that usually comes with a German W4X. Their 4th place at the 2017 World Championships was the first time a German W4X had missed the podium at a World Championships, and they followed that with another 4th place in 2019. This season they won bronze at the Europeans behind the Netherlands and GB. After that, they returned to the top of the podium at the Zagreb World Cup, although the competition wasn’t particularly strong. Lucerne was a bit more encouraging as they won silver, although there will be a concern at the margin they were behind China (almost 5 seconds).

European champions for the past two season are The Netherlands (Laila Youssifou, Inge Janssen, Olivia van Rooijen & Nicole Beukers). Beukers and Janssen were in the W4X that won silver at the Rio Olympics, and with van Rooijen they were World Champions in 2017. The Dutch took bronze at both the 2018 and 2019 World Championships. However, after success at the European championships this season, they came a little unstuck at the Lucerne World Cup, finishing 6th (their lowest placing since finishing 7th at the 2015 World Championships). As with Germany, the Netherlands will be looking for a positive performance in Sabaudia.

2018 World Champions and Rio bronze medallists are Poland. The Polish have the same line-up that won the world title in 2018 (Agnieszka Kobus-Zawojska, Marta Wieliczko, Maria Sajdak and Katarzyn Zillmann). 2019 saw then take silver at the World Championships behind China. Unfortunately, the 2021 European’s was not an excellent regatta for the Poles, racing with Katarzyna Boruch in place of Kobus-Zawojska, they could only manage 7th (which, like the Netherlands, was their worst result since the 2014 World Championships). Lucerne saw them back to full strength, but they were some way off the podium in 4th.

So Germany, the Netherlands and Poland are all former World Champion boats who have had disappointing 2021 seasons.

The same can’t be said for Italy. They have been going from strength to strength this season. 8th in the World in 2019 saw them grab the final direct qualification spot for Tokyo. They placed 5th at both the 2020 and 2021 European Championships, and their crew of Valentina Iseppi, Veronica Lisi, Stefania Gobbi, and Alessandra Montesano made the medal podium in Lucerne, taking bronze behind China and Germany but ahead of the Poles and Netherlands (that medal was Italy’s first in this event since the 2013 European Championships).

The medals are likely to come from those four crews, but seven other boats are racing. Italy, The Netherlands and Poland all have 2nd boats racing as well. ITA2 is Linda di Filippis, Elisa Mondelli, Carmela Pappalardo and Ludovica Serafini. Both di Filippis and Mondelli are also entered in the W1X. Di Filippis makes her senior debut in Sabaudia having raced on the junior world championship team in 2017. Mondelli raced in the W1X at the European Championships this season, finishing 14th. Pappalardo and Serafini are more experienced than their teammates. They finished 7th in the W2X at the Lucerne World Cup this season and were in the W8 at the European Championships. They were also both members of the W4X that finished 12th in 2018.

The Netherland’s no.2 boat is Fanny Bon, Lisa Bruijnincx, Minke Holleboom and Bente Paulis. All four have age-group world championship medals. In addition, Bon was U23 World Champion in the BW8 in 2019, and Bruijnincx was JW2X World Champion the same year. Holleboom and Paulis were both in the U23 BW4X that was silver in 2018.

Poland’s 2nd boat is a young crew (all of whom were born this century….damn that makes me feel old!) Paulina Chrzanowska raced at the 2018 European Junior Championships, Barbara Streng was 10th in the U23 BW4X in 2019 and both Katarzyna Duda and Barbara Jechorek make their international debuts in Sabaudia.

Also racing are the U23 crew from the Czech Republic, Egypt (I think this is the first time Egypt have entered a W4X at a World Cup), Hungary (with Vivien Preil and Zoltana Gadanyi, who finished 4th in the W2x at the FOQR) and Norway (4th at the Europeans this season and 3rd at FOQR).

My picks: The Netherlands in gold with Germany in silver, and Poland in bronze.

Lightweight Women’s Double

Eight crews

The Netherlands will be the clear favourites in this event. Ilse Paulis was gold medallist in Rio (with Maaike Head). She formed a new partnership with Marieke Keijser in 2017, winning the European Championship in 2018 and 2020 and World Championship medals in 2018 and 2019. This season they have raced once, at the European Championships, taking bronze.

Switzerland’s Patricia Merz and Frederique Rol secured qualification for the Tokyo Olympics with 2nd at the FOQR. This duo was 11th at the 2019 World championships but improved to 7th at the 2020 Europeans. Sabaudia will be their first World Cup of the season and will be looking to test themselves against the favoured Dutch.

Italy has two crew racing in this event. ITA1 are Silvia Crosio and Federica Cesarini. Crosio won U23 gold in 2018 and 2019 and won senior World Championship gold in the LW4X in 2019. In 2020 she took European gold in the LW4X in a two-boat final against Germany. Cesarini won U23 silver in 2017 and senior World Championship gold in the LW4X the same year. At the 2019 Worlds, she finished 7th in the LW2X, qualifying the boat for Tokyo with Valentina Rodini. She and Rodini won the European championships this season. Cesarini raced in the LW1X in Lucerne, so it looks as though Rodini may have picked up an injury, and the Italians are trying a new combination for Tokyo.

ITA2 is Greta Martinelli and Arianna Passini. Marinelli was another member of the LW4X that won senior and U23 gold in 2019. In addition, 19-year-old Passini makes her senior debut after picking up a bronze medal in the JW8 at the 2019 Junior World Championships.

France has qualified the boat for Tokyo, but likely many countries don’t have their Olympic crew racing in Sabaudia. So instead, they are represented by Susannah Duncan and Aurelie Morizot. Duncan is a former British U23 World Champion but made her debut for France this season, finishing 9th in the LW1X in Lucerne. Morizot makes her senior debut at the World Cup, spending two years on the U23 team winning a bronze medal in the BLW4X in 2018.

Also racing are boats from the Czech Republic, Denmark and Egypt. The Czechs (Kristyna Neuhortova and Veronika Cinkova) raced at the FOQR but were knocked out in the repechage. Denmark (Marie Morch-Pedersen and Mathilde Persson) also raced at the FOQR, reaching the semi-finals. Egypt’s crew of Salma Abdelrahman and Huda Mansour both make their international debuts in Sabaudia.

My picks: a clear win for the Netherlands with Switzerland in 2nd and Italy 1 in 3rd.

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