Who to watch at Rowing World Cup I

Over 600 athletes have already arrived at Lake Bled to get their 2010 season underway. China has the most entries with 64 athletes. Racing starts with adaptive rowing heats on the evening of Thursday 27 May, racing will continue through to finals on Sunday 30 May. Rain is expected in the forecast with temperatures in the low 20s Celsius.

Women’s Pair (W2-)
If number of entries is anything to go by this will be a race between China’s four crews and Great Britain’s three. But being the first World Rowing regatta of the season, this strategy of multiple entries per country also smells of seat racing by the coaches of these two nations. China’s contingent is relatively unknown because in 2009 China focused on their National Games, staying away from international competition. The strongest pairing for Great Britain is likely to be Olivia Whitlam and Louisa Reeve who are in their second season together and finished sixth in 2009.

Keep an eye out for Germany’s Kerstin Hartmann and Marlene Sinnig. They raced together last year finishing just outside the medals in fourth. This combination is bound to contend for a medal.

But leading the charge is surely Erin Cafaro and Susan Francia of the United States. They are the reigning World Champions and recently won their country’s pair trials showing that their winter training went well.

Men’s Pair (M2-)
The British-New Zealand rivalry opens in Bled. Eric Murray and Hamish Bond (NZL) are the reigning World Champions, but Peter Reed and Andrew Triggs Hodge (GBR), the silver medallists from 2009, will only be satisfied with gold. Luck could be on the British side as Bond had to cut some of his recent training due to injury.

France is fronting up with four new line-ups. These include Olympic Champion in the double (Athens 2004) Adrien Hardy, tucked inside one of the combinations. Greek bronze medallists from 2009 Nikolaos and Apostolos Gkountoulas were beaten a couple of weeks ago at the Wedau Regatta by their fellow countrymen, Ioannis Tsilis and Georgios Tziallas, who finished first. Keep a close eye on Tsilis and Tziallas: the 2008 Under-23 Champions look to be breaking into the senior ranks.

The look of Niccolo Mornati and Lorenzo Carboncini (ITA) seems promising. This duo has a huge wealth of experience between them and perhaps the pair is the boat they have been waiting for.

Women’s Double Sculls (W2x)
This event is full of new trial combinations with few old favourites. Take the bow of Great Britain’s number one crew. There you will find Britain’s most medalled female rower, Katherine Grainger. Grainger raced at the Beijing Olympics in the quad, then swapped to the single in 2009 finishing the season with an admirable world silver. But she has returned to a team boat this year with Anna Watkins Bebington. Watkins Bebington, with Annie Vernon, finished second in this boat class last year at the World Rowing Championships. Vernon is teamed up with Beth Rodford for this regatta.

The young Antosova sisters of Jitka, 23, and Lenka, 18, from the Czech Republic, finished fifth last year and are definitely a crew to watch with room for rapid improvement. They are the only intact crew from last year’s World Rowing Championships final to be racing here. This fact alone leaves the door wide open to a surprise final.

Men’s Double Sculls (M2x)
Similar to the women’s double, the men’s double also shows nations trying new combinations and testing the waters in this event. A number of top single scullers are tucked into crews, including Switzerland’s top sculler Andre Vonarburg doubling up for a second year with Florian Stofer. Belgium is doing the same with their top sculler Tim Maeyens racing with Bart Poelvoorde.

Great Britain has come up with an entire reshuffle and placed Olympic medallist in the double, Matthew Wells, with Marcus Bateman from the 2009 quad. Lightweight Olympic medallist in Beijing, Mads Rasmussen (DEN), is teaming up with Olympian from the pair, Thomas Larsen. Another surprise match-up are good friends and sculling rivals, Olaf Tufte (NOR) and Iztok Cop (SLO) who will be racing together as Norway for this regatta.

With all of this new mixing and matching, the only tried and tested combination is Estonia. Allar Raja and Kaspar Taimsoo were third last year at the World Rowing Championships after proving themselves throughout 2009.

Men’s Four (M4-)
There is nothing like racing on home waters in front of a home crowd and huge support is likely to be in Bled for the Pirih family. Brothers Ziga, Tomaz and Miha take up three of the spots in their country’s four. Youngest brother Ziga moves into this boat for the first time replacing the injured Rok Rozman. Ziga got his start on the international scene as a coxswain for Slovenia at the age of 12. Rok Kolander makes up the fourth spot in the boat that finished third at last year’s World Rowing Championships.

But Slovenia will need all the support the home crowd can give them as they take on World Champions and favourites Great Britain. British men’s coach Juergen Grobler has kept Alex Partridge, Richard Egington, Alex Gregory and Matthew Langridge together for a second year. Also back together is the Czech Republic with a crew blend of youth and experience and a fourth place from 2009 to build on. Keep an eye out also for Belarus who are improving all of the time and running on a wave of government support.

Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls (LW2x)
Greece is the reigning World Champions but at Bled they are boating a new combination. Christina Giazitzidou remains in the boat and is joined by new partner Triantafyllia Kalampoka. This will give the British duo of Hester Goodsell and Sophie Hosking a confidence boost. Goodsell and Hosking finished with bronze last year and at Bled they are one of the only combinations in their second year together. Great Britain will also face 2009 silver medallists Poland (Magdalena Kemnitz and Agnieszka Renc) who, like the British, have remained intact.

Watch out for the new American duo. Sitting in stroke, Ursula Grobler is the current record holder for lightweights on the indoor rowing machine. Grobler is racing with Abelyn Broughton who medalled in the US lightweight quad last year.

Recently China has been strong in women’s lightweight rowing and they have entered three boats for Bled. Xinnan Wang, 20, and Wenyi Huang, 19, are tipped as their top boat and will definitely be a crew to keep an eye on as they debut at their first ever World Rowing event.

Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls (LM2x)
Italy’s Marcello Miani and Elia Luini have been regular partners in recent years and finished third together at last year’s World Rowing Championships. In Bled they will be rivals racing with new partners: Miani will be in Italy 1 and Luini in Italy 2. This means inter-country rivalry and competition to be the best. Denmark are using a similar scenario to Italy with three boats entered. Denmark’s top boat includes 2008 Olympic medallist Rasmus Quist.

Canada has sent their regular double. Douglas Vandor and Cameron Sylvester have been together since 2008 and last year they finished a credible fifth at the World Rowing Championships.

Keep an eye out also for Portugal’s high rating sprinters Pedro Fraga and Nuno Mendes and Great Britain’s Benjamin Rowe and Peter Chambers.

Lightweight Men’s Four (LM4-)
The rivalry between Denmark and Germany continues to mount. Last year at the World Rowing Championships Germany just passed Denmark at the line. Then a couple of weeks ago at the Wedau Regatta, Germany reasserted themselves by beating Denmark again. The Danes will not be liking this. They consider that they have a level of entitlement to this event and they will be back to sort things out in Bled.

Up against these two front runners are all of the nations that are known for their strength in lightweight men’s rowing. Beijing Olympic medallists Poland are there along with France, the Netherlands and Italy who are always pushing at the door to take a medal. Keep an eye out also for the Czech Republic who has shown good boat speed in the past.

Women’s Quadruple Sculls (W4x)
Ukraine finished fourth at the Beijing Olympics then came back to be World Champions in 2009. The crew at Bled has one change from the World Champion crew: Kateryna Tarasenko comes into bow seat. It is expected Ukraine will do well again this year.

But watch out for Great Britain. Coach Paul Thompson has put his two doubles together to race as a quad. As long as the crew can handle their heavy racing schedule, they are bound to do well. Improving throughout last season were the Italians and this could be their year for moving on up. 

Men’s Quadruple Sculls (M4x)
There were rumours that the remarkable Olympic Champion and four-time World Champion Polish men’s quad would disband after racing in front of their home crowd at the 2009 World Rowing Championships in Poznan, Poland. But the crew is back for 2010 and will be larger than life at Bled. Adam Korol, Michal Jelinski, Marek Kolbowicz and Konrad Wasielewski have won every major race they have entered since they came together in 2005 and it looks like they are heading for London 2012. Who can beat them?

If anyone can, it could well be the young upstarts from Croatia. David Sain, Damir Martin, Martin and Valent Sinkovic are 2009 Under-23 Champions and also finished fourth at the senior level last year. It could also be Italy. The Italians have been hunting for years to find the right combination to bring back the glory days of the 2000 Sydney Olympics when they won gold. The crew at Bled includes two of the members of that Olympic Champion boat: Simone Raineri and Alessio Sartori.

Women’s Eight (W8+)
Without Romania and the United States lining up in Bled, this event has really opened up. It may mean that the Netherlands, who took bronze last year at the World Rowing Championships, will be the crew to watch out for. It may also mean that Great Britain will come through and show their true potential. Great Britain has been quietly developing their women’s eight and when they have a good day, their speed is nothing to be sneezed at.

Keep an eye out too for China. They are a relatively unknown quantity, but everyone has come to realise that China can be full of surprises.

Women’s Single Sculls (W1x)
It would be hard to look past the current World Champion, Ekaterina Karsten-Khodotovitch (BLR) in this race. If the results from recent years are anything to go by then Karsten will be finishing first and in the absence of Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic (out due to illness), the second place is up for grabs.

The field then opens up with the next two contenders – judging by experience – being Emma Twigg of New Zealand and Frida Svensson of Sweden. Off-season training, however, can throw up all sorts of surprises. Watch out for Bin Tang of China. She has never raced internationally in the single, but as part of her country’s Olympic Champion quad at Beijing there is every indication she is a top sculler and perhaps looking to fill the shoes of the recently retired Xiuyun Zhang.

Men’s Single Sculls (M1x)
There are 28 entries going into this race and all of the old favourites have put their names forward including the return of Germany’s Marcel Hacker to the single. Hacker took a clear-water first when he raced in the single at the Wedau Regatta a couple of weeks ago and could well be back in single sculling form.

World Champion Mahe Drysdale (NZL) has pulled out at the last minute due to a back injury that has set his training back. Then there is the regular medallist Ondrej Synek (CZE) and last year’s silver medallist from the World Rowing Championships Alan Campbell (GBR) who will be aiming to remain in the medals with Sweden’s Lassi Karonon an outside chance.

Of the more recent additions to this event one must not overlook Ioannis Christou of Greece and the potential of Warren Anderson from the United States. Top French scullers Julien Bahain and Cedric Berrest have left the double to race in the single in Bled. Judging by Bahain’s finishing time in the single at the national championships in April, he can be fast.

Men’s Eight (M8+)
This event is an open slate. The Netherlands have perhaps the best chance on paper. Four of the crew finished third at last year’s World Rowing Championships in this event and the absence of German and Canadian crews gives the Dutch the highest ranking. But it is hard to look past Great Britain. The British finished fifth in 2009 and they have retained five of these rowers. They have also added Greg Searle to the line up. Searle last raced internationally at the 2000 Olympics and late last year he decided to give his all to making it to the 2012 Olympic Games in London. This is step one on that path.

Watch out too for Poland. They only just missed out on a medal last year when they crossed the line in a photo finish with the Netherlands. Perhaps this will be Poland’s lucky regatta.