Murray again at the top of top 10 list

Eric Murray of New Zealand once again is at the head of the Top 10 males list. Murray, sits one spot ahead of his men’s pair partner, Hamish Bond. The duo have remained been unbeaten since 2009 finishing their Olympic regatta with 71 consecutive wins including gold at the Rio Olympic Games. In 2014 they won two World Championship gold medals when they raced in both the men’s coxed pair and men’s pair. At those championships they set a World Best Time in the coxed pair, adding to their World Best Time in the pair. This makes them the only current crew to own two World Best Times simultaneously. In Rio, they won their second Olympic gold medal together.

The Sinkovic brothers, Valent and Martin, are the first Croatians to ever appear on World Rowing’s Top 10 list and they sit in spot three and four respectively. They have been unbeaten in the men’s double sculls since forming a partnership in 2014. During this time they broke the World Best Time to become the first men’s double completed 2,000m in less than six minutes. At the Rio Olympics Valent and Martin took their first Olympic gold medal.

Four athletes hailing from Great Britain’s Rio Olympic men’s four sit on this year’s Top 10 male list in the positions following the Sinkovic brothers. Alex Gregory, George Nash, Mohamed Sbihi and Constantine Louloudis have alternated success between the men’s four and the men’s eight in the past three years. As Great Britain’s top four sweep rowers, they were put into the Olympic four where they went on to win gold.

Closing the men’s list are two members of Switzerland’s lightweight men’s four. In addition to winning the World Rowing Championships in the lightweight four in 2015, Simon Niepmann and Lucas Tramer also set a World Best Time in the lightweight men’s pair in 2014 and became World Champions. Then in Rio they took Olympic gold.  

Great Britain’s Heather Stanning comes in at the top of the women’s Top 10 list. Stanning is half of the women’s pair duo with Helen Glover, who sits in the number two spot. Together Stanning and Glover have not lost a race since taking gold at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Stanning took a break from rowing in 2013 and when she and Glover joined again in 2014 they not only won the World Rowing Championships but also set a World Best Time that still stands today.

Three of the athletes from the United States women’s eight are also on the list. Meghan Musnicki sits at spot three and Lauren Schmetterling in position four with Amanda Polk in position nine. These three have been regular members of the now legendary boat that has remained unbeaten since 2006 and are this year’s Olympic Champions. Musnicki and Polk first raced internationally in the United States eight in 2010 and Schmetterling joined in 2013. Polk and Schmetterling were both part of the crew that set the current World Best Time in the women’s eight at the 2013 World Rowing Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland.

All four members of the German women’s quadruple sculls have made the list. Annekatrin Thiele, Carina Baer, Lisa Schmidla and Julia Lier sit in spots five, six, seven and ten respectively. This crew established the latest World Best Time in this boat class at the 2014 World Rowing Championships and in Rio they took Olympic gold. Annekatrin Thiele and Carina Baer also won Olympic silver in the quad at London 2012.

The new Olympic Champion in the women’s single sculls, Kimberley Brennan of Australia comes into the Top 10 for the first time and is in spot number eight. In this Olympic cycle Brennan won two World Championship golds and one silver before claiming the Olympic title in Rio.

Links

2016 Top 10 Male & Female Rowers here. 

World Rowing Annual Top 10 Ranking Formula here.