Who to Watch: 2013 European Rowing Championships

Over 500 athletes from 34 nations will be racing on Seville’s Rio Guadalquiver Rowing Course with heats taking place on 31 May and concluding with finals on 2 June in the 14 Olympic boat classes.

Read on to find out an overview of those racing.

Women’s Pair (W2-)

The most consistent duo lining up at the start of the women’s pair is Germany’s Kerstin Hartmann and Marlene Sinnig. Hartmann and Sinning raced together in the final at the London Olympic Rowing Regatta and have spent the past four years as Germany’s top women’s pair. Domestic racing so far this year has indicated that the duo remains steadfast.

The main threat for Germany securing the top medal is likely to come from Cristina Grigoras and Nicoleta Albu of Romania. Albu is the reigning queen of the women’s pair at European level. Since 2007 she has amassed four golds and a bronze in this event. For Grigoras, this is her first time racing in the pair at the European Rowing Championships. An under-23 world bronze medallist in the pair, Grigoras also won two European Championship golds in the eight. Selectors will surely be looking at how this combination comes together.

Men’s Pair (M2-)
It will be hard to look past London Olympic silver medallists in the men’s pair, Germain Chardin and Dorian Mortelette. The duo started their bid towards the 2016 Rio Olympic Games with a win at the first Samsung World Rowing Cup of the 2013 season in Sydney last March. Chardin and Mortelette also have an Olympic bronze medal from Beijing where they raced as part of the men’s four. But Chardin and Mortelette will have their work cut out for them with Rogier Blink and Mitchel Steenman of the Netherlands also lining up in this event.

Blink and Steenman also have two Olympic Games under their belts as part of the Dutch men’s eight. They jumped in a pair for last year’s European Rowing Championships and won. Blink and Steenman showed 2013 speed by finishing first at the German Huegel Regatta earlier this month, boding well for their meeting with Chardin and Mortelette.

Second at last year’s European Champs were Alexander Sigurbjonsson Benet and Pau Vela Maggi of Spain. Being on home turf is bound to be an advantage for the duo.

The depth of talent does not end there. Philipp Naruhn and Andre Sieber of Germany have come through German team trials as the fastest pair in their country and they will be ready to prove their speed. Watch out too for Serbia’s pairing of Nenad Bedik and Nikola Stojic who finished third at last year’s European Championships and also competed at the London Olympics together.

Women’s Double Sculls (W2x)

There is a wealth of single sculling talent lining up in this race. Leading the list is the unstoppable and remarkable Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus. Two-time Olympic Champion in the women’s single sculls, Karsten is teaming up with two-time Olympic bronze medallist Yuliya Bichyk to test their boat speed together.

In the Lithuanian boat, Olympic single sculler and last year’s European Champion in the single, Donata Vistartaite is racing with two-time World Junior Champion Milda Valciukaite. Spain is teaming up its top single sculler, Nuria Dominguez Asensio to race in this event with Anna Yuchenko. The duo finished fourth in this event at last year’s European Rowing Championships.

But the field does not end there. Olympic medallist from the double, Magdalena Fularczyk of Poland has got a new partner for 2013, Natalia Madaj. Together they won the double at the Huegel Regatta earlier this month in Germany. Keep an eye out too for last year’s European silver medallists, Italy.

Men’s Double Sculls (M2x)
Last month, Italy’s Francesco Fossi and Olympic silver medallist Romano Battisti opened their 2013 season by winning the Memorial Paolo d’Aloja in Italy ahead of Lithuania’s Saulius Ritter and Rolandas Mascinskas who were Olympic finalists in London. These results indicate two crews to definitely watch at these European Rowing Championships. But the number of London Olympic representatives competing in this event means competition will be stiff.

Leading the way could well be Nils Jakob Hoff and Kjetil Borch of Norway who just missed out on making the A-final in London. Germany’s Eric Knittel and Stephan Krueger were just behind the Norwegians in London and after winning at the Huegel Regatta earlier this month, Knittel and Krueger have already shown that they have 2013 form.

Then there are the talented Estonians, Allar Raja and Kaspar Taimsoo, who come to Seville with a 2013 silver medal from the first stage of the 2013 Samsung World Rowing Cup in Sydney.

This event is hard to pick but will definitely give an indication of who will be hot in the season to come.

Men’s Four (M4-)

A number of new line-ups are hitting the water in this event leaving the door wide open for new European Champions. In the absence of last year’s European Champions Greece, 2012 silver medallists Romania may be the crew to be crowned. The same line-up from last year is racing and the Romanians’ experience together might play to their advantage. Serbia has also retained the same line-up that finished with a European Championship bronze medal last year.

The Germans are well-known for their strong men’s sweep squad but 2013 is a rebuilding year for them and there will be much interest in how their four performs. The German boat includes just one member from their London Olympic crew, Toni Seifert. The 2012 Olympic finalist crew from the Netherlands will be racing with just one change to their 2012 line-up – Robert Luecken is replacing Ruben Knab – while Italy has retained two members from their London Olympic crew, Mario Paonessa and Vincenzo Capelli.

These countries will be a force to be reckoned with.

Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls (LW2x)
Laura Milani and Elisabetta Sancassani of Italy are the 2012 European Champions in this event and after winning at the Memorial Paolo d’Aloja last month, it seems the duo is well placed to defend its title.

There is likely to be stiff competition coming from Anja Noske and Lena Mueller of Germany. The duo raced in the A-final at last year’s London Olympics and both have been a powerful force in German lightweight rowing in recent years.

Coming up through the ranks are Belarus’ Irina Liaskova and Alena Kryvasheyenka. The duo finished fifth last year at the European Rowing Championships with Kryvasheyenka also becoming the under-23 World Champion as well as the senior world bronze medallist in the lightweight single in 2012.

Keep an eye out too for Sweden’s Cecilia Lilja and Emma Fred who had success last month at the Memorial Paolo d’Aloja.

Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls (LM2x)
With many of these crews in new line-ups for 2013, on paper France’s Stany Delayre and Jeremie Azou look to be the crew to beat. Delayre and Azou were fourth at the London Olympics following a season that saw them win two World Rowing Cup medals together. The duo proved itself already this year by finishing first and second in the lightweight single at the French national team trials.

Moving from sweep rowing to sculling are the Dutch twins of Vincent and Tycho Muda. The brothers raced in the A-final of the lightweight men’s four at the London Olympic Rowing Regatta and are now looking to make their mark in the double. Also coming out of a lightweight men’s four crew that raced in the London Final are Switzerland’s Mario Gyr and Simon Schuerch. Both crews have lengthy rowing experience that will surely play to their advantage.

At the Huegel Regatta earlier this month reigning under-23 World Champions Paul and Bernhard Sieber from Austria were first ahead of Germany’s new line-up of Lars Hartig and Konstantin Steinhuebel. This bodes well for both of these crews to put in a solid performance.

Lightweight Men’s Four (LM4-)

Three of the crew members that struck bronze for Denmark at the London Olympics are back for another season. The Danes will be considered as a speed indicator for other crews to measure themselves against. Likely to put in a good test are the Italians. Martino Goretti from Italy’s 2012 Olympic lightweight four is sitting in stroke with the timeless Elia Luini sitting behind him. The Italians are the defending European Champions with Goretti and Armando Dell’Aquila both back in the boat from the 2012 crew.

Keep an eye out for the new Dutch line-up. Stroke and three seat (Joris Pijs and Arnoud Greidanus) finished second in the world last year in the lightweight men’s pair and in bow is Timothee Heijbrock who raced in the A-final of the London Olympics in the lightweight four.
Germany cannot be overlooked as their boat is full of names that are well-known in lightweight rowing circles including Olympian Lars Wichert and silver medallist in the lightweight men’s single from the World Rowing Cup in Sydney, Jost Schoemann-Finck.

Women’s Quadruple Sculls (W4x)

The intact German line-up that won silver at the London Olympic Games would appear on paper to be the favourites. But they are likely to face stiff competition from Poland. At the Huegel Regatta earlier this month Poland beat the Germans. However in Seville, two members have gone into the double and have been replaced by Maria Springwald and Agnieszka Kobus from the 2012 under-23 quad and thus become somewhat of an unknown quantity.

Ukraine is the reigning Olympic and European Champions, but in Seville it is an entirely new crew lining up, with the most experienced member being Olena Buryak. Buryak raced at the London Olympics in the double.

Keep an eye out too for Romania. They regularly do well in this event at the European Rowing Championships and last year took bronze. The 2013 crew is full of up-and-coming rowers including three world junior medallists from 2012.

Men’s Quadruple Sculls (M4x)

While many countries are rebuilding their crews in this post-Olympic year, Croatia has remained steadfast and comes to Seville with the line-up that won silver at the London Olympics and has been together since 2009. Earlier in the month at the Huegel Regatta, the Croatians finished first holding off some strong German crews.

For the Olympic Champions, Germany, their crew has one change from the London line-up. Kai Fuhrmann comes into the boat to join Karl Schulze, Lauritz Schoof and Tim Grohmann. There is little doubt that it will be Croatia and Germany battling it out at the head of the field and it is anyone’s guess who will prevail.

Keep an eye out for the Italians with the very experienced Simone Raineri in stroke seat. Ukraine, who finished second at last year’s European Championships, and Slovenia who finished third, should also put on a strong performance.

Women’s Single Sculls (W1x)
Mirka Knapkova is back. The 2012 Olympic Champion from the Czech Republic will get her 2013 season underway in Seville and there is little doubt that her performance will be eagerly watched.

For the rest of the field Knapkova will be hard to beat. Next closest from the Olympic Games is Donata Vistartaite of Lithuania who was eighth in London. Vistartaite, however, comes with strong credentials as the reigning European Champion. She also finished first in the single last month at the Memorial Paolo d’Aloja regatta. So there is every indication that Vistartaite has stepped up a notch through her offseason training.

Watch out too for Frida Svensson of Sweden. Svensson has been racing in the single internationally for more than a decade and in that time has earned a World Championship title. Svensson was second behind Vistartaite at the Memorial Paolo d’Aloja.

The field of single scullers will need to prepare too for Nataliya Dovgodko of Ukraine. A 2012 Olympic Champion in the women’s quadruple sculls, Dovgodko may not have much international experience in the single, but her overall strength cannot be overlooked.

Men’s Single Sculls (M1x)

London Olympic silver medallist Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic is back in action in Seville and his former results must make him the favourite going into this event. But Germany’s Marcel Hacker is looking in top form after beating Olympic bronze medallist Alan Campbell (GBR) at the Huegel Regatta a couple of weeks ago. Hacker has also been proving himself through German team trials and looks to have the ability to put the heat on Synek.

Keep an eye out too for three-time European Champion in the single Mindaugas Griskonis of Lithuania. The small group of elite Lithuanian scullers seems to be on a big improvement curve and Griskonis is part of this.

These scullers will face the very experienced Tonu Endrekson of Estonia and Luka Spik of Slovenia. Both Endrekson and Spik are Olympic medallists from team boats and both come to Seville as the top scullers from their respective nations.

Women’s Eight (W8+)

This is an open field. All of the crews are new line-ups including former scullers and first-time national team members. The crew with the most certainty of talent must be Romania. They are the reigning European Champions and four of the members from last year’s Olympic crew that finished fourth in London remain in the boat. Germany, though, may hold the upper hand here.

Five members of Germany’s eight rowed in London where they finished seventh. For Russia and Belarus, both boats contain a number of rowers that aimed for Olympic qualification last year in the eight, but missed out.

Romania is likely to be in the lead with Germany the ones most likely to challenge.

Men’s Eight (M8+)
An impressive ten-country line-up spells hot racing in this event. It would be hard to look past Olympic Champions, Germany. But the Germans have admitted to starting off this season rather slowly and the crew in Seville represents about half of those that raced to gold in London.

Instead it could be Poland and France that make the greatest impression. At the Huegel Regatta both countries showed impressive boat speed finishing ahead of the German line-ups. Poland is boating the same crew that finished seventh at the Olympic Games and they are the defending European Champions.

France has put together a boat made up of their best including Olympic silver medallists from the men’s pair, Dorian Mortelette and Germain Chardin. There is also Julien Despres and Benjamin Lang who finished third in the pair at the World Rowing Cup in Sydney as well as top sculler, Jean-Baptiste Macquet.

Watch out too for Italy. There are some top names in the line-up.