Who to watch; 2018 World Rowing Under 23 Championships

The openweight and lightweight single sculls has the highest number of entries across the 22 boat classes. The men’s single sculls has 28 nations and sees the return of the 2017 champion from Canada, Trevor Jones. Jones may come under pressure from Bulgaria’s Boris Yotov who has competed in the men’s single and men’s double sculls at many senior rowing events.

The lightweight men’s single sculls also sees the return of the reigning under-23 champion, Uncas Batista from Brazil will face competition from Ask Jarl Tjoem of Norway. Tjoem finished fourth at the first World Rowing Cup this season.

The women’s single sculls has 19 entries and the favourite looks to be Emily Kallfelz of the United States. Kallfelz finished third at last year’s under-23 championships. Watch out too for Norway’s Thea Helseth. Helseth finished fifth at last year’s event and placed ninth a couple of weeks ago at the World Rowing Cup III.  

The lightweight women’s single sculls has the young Italian star, Clara Guerra. Guerra won the the single at the World Rowing Junior Championships in 2016 before stepping up to take silver at last year’s under-23 championships. She also has a bronze medal from the second World Cup this season. Keep an eye on Imagen Grant of Great Britain as well. She comes out of the lightweight quad and finished fourth at the first World Cup of the season.

The British may have the upper hand in the women’s quadruple sculls. They are returning with half of the winning boat from 2017, plus the addition of Zoe Adamson who won the 2017 junior championships in the women’s double. The men’s quadruple sculls will see many new faces. New Zealand could be among the favourites. They won last year and are back with the same stroke – Jack O’Leary.

Moving to the sweep boats, the women’s pair sees the return of the Chilean sensations, Melita and Antonia Abraham. The Abraham sisters won the first-ever gold medal for Chile in women’s rowing at last year’s under-23 championships. They are joined by another set of twins, Ivana and Josipa Jurkovic from Croatia. The Jurkovic’s took the gold in the women’s four at the 2017 junior championships and are making the step up to under-23s.

France is developing some great brother combinations at both the senior and under-23 level. The Turlan twins, Guillaume and Thibaud, won silver in the under-23 men’s pair last year.  Earlier this year, they raced to a B-final finish at the World Cup level. They are likely to face competition from Romania. Romania have historically done well in the men’s pair and this year’s crew includes 2017 silver medallist from the junior men’s pair, Florin-Sorin Lahaci and 2017 bronze medallist from the junior men’s four, Dumitru-Alexandru Ciobica.

The men’s and women’s eights always provide an excellent spectacle. The 2017 title in the women’s eight went to Canada when they dethroned the United States. But the US will definitely be strong contenders again this year and hungry for the win. Watch out too for Romania. Women’s sweep rowing is high on their list.

The men’s eight was won in 2016 and 2017 by the Netherlands. They are drawing on their strong student rowing programmes to make excellent young crews, but this year’s crew is an entirely new line-up so an element of surprise may ensue. Romania, however, is bringing back seven of the nine rowers who came second last year. They will have to watch out for a very fast crew from the United States. The US boat came fourth a few weeks ago at the World Rowing Cup in Lucerne and managed to stay with the senior-level World Champions from Germany for the first half of the race.