Who to watch at the Munich Rowing World Cup

This first international race of the season will give athletes a benchmark as they come in from winter training to open 2008. Here’s a guide to a sampling of the best of the record number of entries.

Women’s Single Sculls (W1x)

Shaking up the status quo Rumyana Neykova of Bulgaria gave Belarus’ Ekaterina Karsten a scare at the end of last season. Neykova forced Karsten to sprint; Karsten’s first tight race in three years. Karsten won the World Rowing Championships but Neykova had sent her a message that she was back and fast. The perennial rivals will meet again on the same Munich regatta course. Neykova can be inconsistent but against Karsten she will be aiming to gain the psychological edge as they prepare for the Olympic Games.

Michelle Guerette of the United States, who earned World Championship bronze last year, is fronting up in Munich. She will find stiff competition coming from a number of European directions: from France in the form of Sophie Balmary, from Sweden’s Frida Svensson and from Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic. Watch out also for the young enthusiasm of Serbia’s Iva Obradovic, Poland’s Julia Michalska and Emma Twigg of New Zealand. The three have all won at world under 23 level.

Men’s Single Sculls (M1x)

Despite the absence of reigning World Champion Mahe Drysdale there is no shortage of hot competition. Germany’s Marcel Hacker has a chance to redeem himself in front of his home crowd after failing to medal at Munich last year. But Hacker will have to contend with two-time Olympic medallist Olaf Tufte of Norway who always manages to take it up a notch in the Olympic year. Last year’s silver medallist, Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic is also lining up and the past has shown that Synek is able to step up when he needs to.

Interest will also be on Great Britain’s Alan Campbell. Known for his blistering starts, observers will be keen to see what Campbell has been working on during the off-season. Keep an eye out for China’s Liang Zhang who has just qualified for the Olympics at the Asian Qualification Regatta in late April by blitzing the competition. Sweden’s Lassi Karonen is back again and about to show off the impact of winter training.

Women’s Pair (W2-)

Lately every race in this event seemed to bring out a new winner. The 2007 World Champion title went to Yulia Bichyk and Natallia Helakh of Belarus and sent a message out to the field indicating Bichyk and Helakh’s speed. The Athens bronze medallists are now aiming for Beijing glory and are using the first Rowing World Cup to kick-start their season. But one of the finest comebacks of 2007, Olympic Champions Georgeta Damian-Andrunache and Viorica Susanu of Romania have also decided to test themselves in Munich. Belarus will no doubt be wary.

Meanwhile, despite winning silver last year, Germany has thrown open the pair to the women’s sweep squad and entered two boats, neither of which contain the 2007 silver medallists. A crab last year robbed Australia of a medal, but the duo of Kim Crow and Sarah Cook are back and rowing on greater experience. The United States and China have also entered two boats as Olympic crew tweaking continues.

Men’s Pair (M2-)

This race is wide open. The three medallists from last year, Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain are missing. Australia and Great Britain have both entered a new combination and New Zealand will join the international scene at the second World Cup. Look out for Jason Read and Bryan Volpenhein. Hot off a clear win at the United States team trials, Read and Volpenhein – bow and stroke seats of the 2004 Olympic Champion eight – are testing their boat speed on the international scene.

Read and Volpenhein will find some tough competition coming from Serbia’s Goran Jagar and Nikola Stojic (sixth in 2007) as well as Erwan Peron and Laurent Cadot of France (fourth in 2007).

Some well-known names, but new to this event, the Czech Republic’s Vaclav Chalupa has put sculling to one side and is paired up with Jakub Makovicka. Italy’s Raffaello Leonardo, former captain of the men’s eight, will be after medals with Giuseppe De Vita.

Women’s Double Sculls (W2x)

China’s classy win in 2007 will make them the favourites coming into this season. Qin Li and Liang Tian are going into their third year together and in the absence of New Zealand they will be looking to Great Britain to provide solid competition. Great Britain finished third last year but the combination has changed, perhaps for the better, with Elise Laverick joined by the post-injury return of Sarah Winckless.

Watch out for Romania with their two entries wanting to prove who is the best to their nation’s Olympic selectors. There will also be a lot of speed coming from the fast Czech duo of under-23 World Champions and European Champions Jitka Antosova and Gabriela Varekova.

Men’s Double Sculls (M2x)

Current World Champions, Slovenia’s best, Luka Spik and Iztok Cop have had to pull out due to a back injury for Spik. This has pushed Cop into the single. Instead the target will be last year’s silver medallists Adrien Hardy and Jean-Baptiste Macquet of France. Hardy and Macquet took gold in 2006, and after a rocky start to 2007, they were back on pace by the end of the season.

France will need to be on their guard with Great Britain’s powerful duo of Matthew Wells and Stephen Rowbotham moving into their second season together. Keep an eye out also for Belgium. Formidable single sculler Tim Maeyens has joined Christophe Raes to make a fast double. Also in for a medal chance, triple world under-23 champions Stanislau Shcharbachenia and Dzianis Mihal of Belarus continue to develop with international experience and Denmark’s lightweight double phenomena Mads Rasmussen and Rasmus Quist start the season in this open event.

Men’s Four (M4-)

Italy has kept their 2007 silver medal four intact. Lorenzo Carboncini, Niccolo Mornati, Alessio Sartori and Carlo Mornati own stacks of medals and have years of experience to call on as they take on Great Britain. A winter of shuffling and reshuffling by British men’s head coach Juergen Grobler has led to the replacement of Alex Partridge with Tom James in the two-time World Champion crew as Grobler puts all of his resources into winning Olympic gold again in this event. But a post-selection injury for James means that he will be replaced by Tom Lucy for this regatta.

In the absence of current World Champions New Zealand, stiff competition will come from last year’s world bronze medallists the Netherlands and Slovenia, who both retain their 2007 crews.

Lightweight women’s double sculls (LW2x)

The duo of Kristan van der Kolk and Marit van Eupen medalled at the Athens Olympics and then disbanded, coming together earlier this year with the aim to go to the Beijing Olympics. This World Cup will be their re-entry and test on the international stage. With two of the top crews Finland and Denmark racing in the open category, van der Kolk and van Eupen will get to try their speed out against 2007 bronze medallists Marie-Louise Draeger and Berit Carow of Germany as well as 2007 European Champions Chrysi Biskitzi and Alexandra Tsiavou of Greece.

China will be making no mistakes this year in the lightweight double. After finishing an unexpected sixth last year, Dongxiang Xu and Haixia Chen remain together as a crew and will be looking to build up to the top position. Keep an eye out also for Misaki Kumakura and Akiko Iwamoto of Japan. They qualified last month for Beijing after winning at the Asian Qualification Regatta.

Lightweight men’s double sculls (LM2x)

Last season the fresh new double of Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter of Great Britain played on their unknown element. This year other crews will be watching the British duo after they finished 2007 with a bronze medal. Greece’s Vasileios Polymeros and Dimitrios Mougios will especially be watching with the hope that their winter training has kept them ahead of the Brits.

With current World Champions Mads Rasmussen and Rasmus Quist of Denmark racing in the open double, Great Britain and Greece will be the top contenders for the gold medal spot. But this is early in the season, the field is large – 33 entries – and New Zealand’s Storm Uru and Peter Taylor have appeared on the scene aiming to qualify later this season for the Olympic Games. Top racing will also come from Japan’s Kazushige Ura and Daisaku Takeda and watch out for Denmark’s entry which features indoor rowing king, Henrik Stephansen.

Lightweight Men’s Four (LM4-)

The big guns are all fronting up at this regatta. Great Britain has retained their World Champion crew under the inspiring coaching of Robin Williams. World silver medallists France enter in with one change, Guillaume Raineau, replacing longstanding crew member, Jeremy Pouge. Italy, who finished with bronze last year are back again in their same formation.

But watch out for Denmark. The return of Thomas Ebert means half of their famed Olympic Champion lightweight four are back in the boat with Eskild Ebbesen in stroke seat. China will also be a hot contender. The 2006 World Champions have retained their same line-up and a second Chinese boat has been entered to keep the pressure on.

In this well-represented field (19 entries), a whole bunch of boats will be knocking on the door for an A Final spot. The Netherlands have proven talent, Greece continues to improve and Germany always boats a sound line-up.

Women’s Quadruple Sculls (W4x)

There is no doubt that German coach Jutta Lau will be going after Olympic Champion status in this event at Beijing. Lau has put Kathrin Boron back into the stroke seat of her top boat as Boron heads into the season of chasing her fifth Olympic gold. But Great Britain also has high aims as it currently retains the upper edge having earned World Champion titles consecutively for the last three years, while Germany has posted mixed results and boated a mixture of crews.

Keen interest will focus around China. The Chinese quad finished with bronze in 2007 and are the only crew to have beaten Great Britain at a World Cup last year. Unlike previous years, China is going for stability and they have retained the same line-up that earned the bronze on this course in 2007.

Men’s Quadruple Sculls (M4x)

There is no doubt that three-time consecutive World Champions Poland will be the crew to beat in this event. Coach Aleksander Wojciechowski has his sights set firmly on Olympic gold and his crew, that has remained the same since coming together in 2005, also have gold in their eyes. Entries, though, have swelled to an impressive 18 boats from all corners of the globe.

Australia is there with a new line-up from the boat that qualified for the Olympics last year. Ukraine will be aiming to improve on their 2007 sixth-place finish. Germany has reshuffled their 2007 bronze medal crew only retaining Rene Bertram and Karsten Brodowski.

Perhaps the biggest challenge to Poland will be last year’s silver medallists. France has a new member since 2007, Pierre-Jean Peltier who replaces Jean-David Bernard, and will be hoping that this change will maintain their customary big finishes.

Women’s Eight (W8+)

Only five boats were able to qualify for the Olympics in this event. Of the nine boats racing at this first Rowing World Cup, a number are yet to qualify and will be looking to do just this at the last qualifying chance in June. The list is far from shabby. The Dutch 2004 Athens medallists are there. So is China. The Chinese have put a huge amount of resources into making sure that they are racing in this event at Beijing. New Zealand and Belarus are also planning on qualifying their boat in June.

In the absence of World Champions, the United States who are still involved in team trials, Romania will be the hot favourites. The Romanian eight looks remarkably like the eight that won gold at Athens and who largely went into retirement at the end of 2004. Their comeback crew finished with silver last year and with Doina Ignat (four Olympic medals) back in stroke seat, they will be a hard crew to beat. In contrast Great Britain contains a crew of new blood that came into maturity by earning bronze in 2007.

Men’s Eight (M8+)

Finishing just on the edge of Olympic qualification last year has not deterred Switzerland, the Netherlands and France from keeping their Olympic hope alive. They come to the Munich World Cup to test their speed against the best in the world before attempting to qualify for Beijing at the last chance in June.

Pacing the hopefuls will be home favourites and the crew to beat, Germany. China came along in leaps and bounds last year finishing the season off by qualifying for the Olympics. They have now had half a year to develop and their improvements will be revealed in this event. Great Britain likes to use their eight as a back-up for their flagship men’s four and recent reshuffling with changes in the four as well as injuries within the sweep squad has meant a crew that has not spent a lot of time together. But the depth of British rowing talent will mean this crew can still push for a medal. Watch out also for Australia and Poland. Both crews have already qualified for Beijing, Australia earning a spot following the disqualification of Russia.