Who to Watch: 2012 European Championships Varese, Italy

A record 36 nations from throughout Europe are getting ready to race from 14 to 16 September. They will race in the 14 Olympic boat classes with a stack of London Olympians, including some of the medallists, lining up. Read on for who you should watch out for at this exciting European Championship regatta.

Women’s Pair (W2-)
When the name Georgeta Andrunache of Romania pops up in the list of entries, especially when it’s in her signature event, it is hard to look past her. Andrunache, the three-time women’s pair Olympic Champion made a 2012 comeback that ended in a fifth-place at the London Olympics. Now the 36-year-old has teamed up with the young Romanian rowing star, Nicoleta Albu. With this combination the European Championship title is likely to be heading Romania’s way.

This leaves the battle for second. Italy’s Claudia Wurzel and Sara Bertolasi, who were tenth at the London Olympics, may be fighting with 2012 under-23 silver medallists, Caragh McMurtry and Olivia Carnegie-Brown of Great Britain to take silver. Keep an eye out too for Martina Stillerova and Katerina Kopecka of the Czech Republic who finished fourth at this year’s under-23 championships.

Men’s Pair (M2-)
Three of these crews raced in the men’s pair at the Olympics with Poland’s Wojciech Gutorski and Jaroslaw Godek scoring the best result with a tenth place finish. But perhaps more of interest is Rogier Blink and Mitchel Steenman of the Netherlands. Blink and Steenman raced in London in their country’s men’s eight where they finished a very close fifth. Ukraine’s entry of Oleg Lykov and Sergiy Chykanov were also in the eight at the Olympics with their end result being a win in the B-final.

Into the racing mix at Varese is the 2012 under-23 champions, Kieren Emery and Matthew Tarrant of Great Britain and they may be the crew to watch. Keep an eye out too for Greece’s combination of Apostolos Gkountoulas and Apostolos Lampridis. Gkountoulas raced to a ninth-place finish in the Olympic pair but this is his first time racing without his twin brother making this boat an interesting trial.

Women’s Double Sculls (W2x)
Two medallists from this year’s World Rowing Under 23 Championships are entered in the women’s double sculls. Eleni Diamanti and Aikaterini Nikolaidou of Greece were second while Tatsiana Kukhta and Katsiaryna Shiupskaya of Belarus finished third. These two crews will do battle again at Varese and will face the Olympic duo from Ukraine, Olena Buryak and Anna Kravchenko. Buryak and Kravchenko finished tenth in London. It is likely that they will step up for the European Championships as part of Ukraine’s large team.

Keep an eye out for Spain. Nuria Dominguez Asensio and Anna Yuchenko came together earlier this year and just missed out on qualifying for the London Olympics by one place. With more time in the boat together they will surely have gained more boat speed.

Men’s Double Sculls (M2x)
It will be very hard to look past the Olympic silver medallists, Alession Sartori and Romano Battisti of Italy. This classy duo will be favourites to win unless they have been doing too much post-Olympic celebrating. Planning to challenge hard are two other entries that both raced in London. Saulius Ritter and Rolandas Mascinskas of Lithuania are the reigning European Champions in the double and were sixth at the Olympic Games while Nils Jakob Hoff and Kjetil Borch of Norway finished seventh in London. Hoff and Borch won the Samsung World Rowing Cup in Munich earlier this season proving they have the potential to be out in front.

Watch out too for the Croatian double of Martin and Valent Sinkovic. The brothers are part of Croatia’s very successful men’s quadruple sculls that finished second in London. The quad is known to spend some of their training time in doubles and the Sinkovic’s could be a Varese surprise.

Men’s Four (M4-)
The reigning European Champions in the four, Greece are back again with three of the same crew that won a year ago. That same three – Stergios Papachristos, Georgios Tziallas and Ioannis Christou – finished fourth at the London Olympics and with the addition of under-23 men’s single bronze medallist, Dionysios Angelopoulos in the boat, this crew is looking good to defend their title.

There are other London Olympic crews racing in Varese with seventh-placed Belarus having the potential to challenge the Greeks. Belarus finished second to Greece at last year’s European Championships and they picked up two Samsung World Rowing Cup medals this season.

Keep an eye on the French. They have put London Olympic silver medallist from the men’s pair, Germain Chardin in three seat behind the very talented Adrien Hardy. France could surprise.

Women’s Single Sculls (W1x)
At the London Olympic Games three of these scullers raced each other in the B-final. At that time Donata Vistartaite of Lithuania came out on top finishing ahead of Russia’s Julia Levina and Frida Svensson of Sweden – the placings; eighth, ninth and tenth respectively.

Can Vistartaite hold off her competition again? A lot must come down to how these athletes handled the post-Olympic period and the build-up towards these European Championships. There is little doubt that Vistartaite will have to give it her best shot to stay ahead of the very experienced Levina and former World Champion, Svensson.

Keep a look out also for Julia Lier of Germany. Lier is the reigning under-23 champion and already has a string of pre-senior medals to her name.

Men’s Single Sculls (M1x)
Lithuania’s Mindaugas Griskonis is the reigning European Champion in the men’s single, but his eighth place finish at the London Olympics may put him on the back foot as he will be up against Aleksandar Aleksandrov of Azerbaijan. Aleksandrov may be a little inconsistent but when he has a good race he is fast. In London Aleksandrov, 22, finished a very impressive fifth and he also picked up the under-23 champion title earlier this season.

Three-time Olympian, Tim Maeyens of Belgium finished in twelfth at the London Olympics and it is likely Maeyens is racing at the European Championships to finish off his season on a positive note. Maeyens, 31, is known for his sprinting ability and his years of experience must play to his advantage when he lines up in Varese.

Keep an eye out too for 2012 lightweight university champion, Peter Galambos of Hungary as well as this year’s junior champion, Michal Plocek of the Czech Republic.

Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls (LW2x)
There is no looking past the class of Christina Giazitzidou and Alexandra Tsiavou. For the Greek duo, 2011 was an unbeaten season making them the reigning World and European Champions. At London Giazitzidou and Tsiavou picked up the bronze medal and then Tsiavou went on to the 2012 World Rowing Championships to win the lightweight women’s single sculls. There is little doubt Giazitzidou and Tsiavou will finish first at Varese. The question is, by how much?

Racing for the lesser medals will be Poland’s Agnieszka Renc and Weronika Deresz. Renc and Deresz are the 2012 World Champions in the lightweight women’s quadruple sculls and they both have experience racing in the double, although often not with each other. Italy’s Elisabetta Sancassani and Laura Milani should be medal contenders. Milani finished third in this event last year at the European Championships while Sancassani has done much of her racing in the open-weight double.

Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls (LM2x)
Portugal’s star crew, Pedro Fraga and Nuno Mendes come to Varese on the back of a fifth place finish at the London Olympics. This fast-finishing duo has medalled the last two years at the European Championships but the gold has eluded them. Will this be their year?

Perhaps the biggest challenge to Fraga and Mendes will be Greece. Panagiotis Magdanis finished seventh in London and for these European Championships he has been partnered up with this year’s under-23 champion in the lightweight single, Spyridon Giannaros. Odds are that this will be a Greek – Portugal battle.

But keep an eye out for Fabrice Moreau and Thomas Baroukh of France. They competed at the London Olympics in the lightweight four and are both very experienced racers. There’s also Poland’s Artur Mikolajczewski and Milosz Jankowski who come to Varese on the back of a World Championship title in the lightweight quad.

Lightweight Men’s Four (LM4-)
This event has a mixed bag lining up with the stand-out boat likely to be Italy. Inside this Italian four is the 2012 World Champions from the lightweight men’s pair, Luca De Maria and Armando Dell’Aquila as well as Martino Goretti who finished second in the lightweight men’s eight and under-23 champion from the lightweight four, Petru Zaharia.

All other crews have perhaps one or two members with impressive credentials, but nothing to match the Italians. This race looks to be one where crews will get a chance to come out of the woodwork and surprise the rowing world with Serbia perhaps the one to most likely challenge the Italians.

Women’s Quadruple Sculls (W4x)
Winning at the 2012 Olympic Games must not have been enough for Ukraine. They are back for the European Championships and ready to collect more gold. There is one change to the Olympic Champion line up with Olha Hurkovska replacing Anastasiia Kozhenkova. Despite this change everything points towards a Ukrainian win. The strongest challenge is likely to come from the Polish Olympic crew who finished seventh in London and have retained the same line up for Varese.

Keep an eye out for the Austrian entry. This crew is made up of a mixture of this year’s under-23 champions in the double, plus the very talented lightweight single sculler, Michaela Taupe-Traer. This could prove to be a strong line up.

Men’s Quadruple Sculls (M4x)
The only stable crew in this event is the very competent Estonians. They finished fourth at the London Olympic Games and are easily the favourites at these European Championships. Estonia should make easy work of the competition who consist of a mixture of national team members. Included in this are a crew full of London Olympians from France. The bow pair raced to tenth in the quad while the stroke pair was tenth in London in the double. This crew is talented and put all together they may be quite fast.

It is always important to look out for Ukraine when it comes to the quad and this crew consists of three members who were the under-23 champions in the quad last year plus 2012 Olympian from the quad, Ivan Dovgodko in stroke seat. Watch out too for Russia with two London Olympians sitting in the boat.

Women’s Eight (W8+)
Ever since the European Championships was reintroduced in 2007 Romania has won the women’s eight. There is every indication that this trend will continue at Varese with coxswain Talida-Teodora Gidoiu continuing to guide the boat since first taking the reins in 2008. The Romanian crew is also looking good with five of the London Olympic fourth place finishers on board as well as the great multiple Olympic Champion, Viorica Susanu sitting in the boat.

Great Britain could put up a good fight. They finished fourth at last year’s European Championships and with the silver medallists from this year’s under-23 championships in the front of the boat, this crew will be putting on a performance.

Keep an eye out too for Russia who have included their under-23 bronze medal women’s four into the crew.

Men’s Eight (M8+)
This event is very well represented with eight countries entered. Poland has arrived with seven of the eight rowers that finished in seventh place at the London Olympics. Poland finished first at the Samsung World Rowing Cup in Munich earlier this season and when they are on form they are very quick. Perhaps their biggest challenge will come from Greece.

The Greeks have put together a boat that consists of three of their Olympic men’s four and their Olympic men’s pair plus some talented under-23 rowers. The London Olympic men’s four from the Czech Republic and Romania can be found in their eight while Ukraine have retained six of their rowers that finished eighth at this year’s Olympics. These crews are likely to demonstrate some very tight racing.