Rowers to watch – 2022 European Rowing Under 19 Championships

The first on-water rowing event of World Rowing’s 2022 season gets underway this weekend. The 2022 European Rowing Under 19 Championships in Varese, Italy, will welcome rowers from 29 European member federations.

Many of these athletes will compete internationally for the first time and most of them are hoping to come back to Varese later this year, for the World Rowing Under 19 Championships. Here are the rowers to watch racing 21 to 22 May.

The men’s and women’s double sculls often attract large entries and this year is no exception. The men’s double sculls is a packed field and the favourites must be Italy’s Marco Dri and Marco Gilardoni, with the former finishing fourth at the World Rowing Junior Championships in 2021. Chasing them will be Daniel Galeza and Piotr Sliwinski of Poland, with the former taking bronze at the junior worlds last year. The women’s double sculls sees several of the competitors from the 2021 European Rowing Junior Championships returning, with gold medallist Styliani Natsioula of Greece looking to defend her position.

The men’s single sculls event doesn’t feature many of the 2021 competitors but instead has the next generation of junior rowers. It is worth keeping an eye out for August Wisholm of Denmark though, who finished fifth at last year’s World Rowing Junior Championships in Plovdiv. It will be interesting to see his progress after another year of training. The women’s single sculls has only nine entries, but Jara Dremelj of Slovenia, usually rowing in the double with Ruby Cop (daughter of Iztok Cop), will be the name to watch.

Romania often dominates the men’s and women’s pair, especially at the junior and under-23 level. Andrei-Vlad-Robert Vatamaniuc and Iliuta-Leontin Nutescu will have to face Marco and Luca Vicino, World Rowing Junior Champions in 2021 in the men’s coxed four. Greece and Croatia could also be in the mix but they both have new crews lining up. The women’s pair will also see a new crew for Romania battle against Great Britain, Italy and France.

Moving on to the bigger boats;. The men’s quadruple sculls has 14 entries, making it a packed field. Many crews have athletes that competed at the World and European Rowing Junior Championships in 2021, where the Czech Republic picked up medals at both events. They are certainly the crew to watch in Varese. The women’s quadruple sculls will likely see a rematch of last year where Switzerland and Romania battled the whole season. Keep an eye too on the host nation Italy who always perform well in that boat class.

The women’s four has only four entries but the top three nations from the 2021 World Rowing Junior Championships are there – Romania, France and Italy – so expect the racing to be tight. There are eleven entries in the men’s four and Romania and Italy are definitely in the running for a medal.

Rounding it out are the eights. The men’s eight has seven entries, including Romania who won a gold medal at the last European Rowing Junior Championships. Keep an eye too on Turkey who has entered a very experienced young crew and has got some great results in sweep boats in 2021. In the women’s eight, the odds are in Romania’s favour. They picked up bronze at the world-level event last year and return with great ambitions.

In 2008, the European Rowing Junior Championships were introduced. The age category was changed from Junior to Under 19 at the end of 2020, and came into effect at the end of 2021.