Tuesday debrief: Top speed and tears shed on Lago di Varese

We’re not ones to shy away from a good story, especially when it comes to a World Rowing Cup and especially in Italy. Varese treated us with an action-packed sunday of finals that didn’t even allow for a good gelato – but provided a whole bunch of World Best Times and emotional and surprising performances on the occasion of the 2023 World Rowing Cup II. Here’s the debrief.

The flying Paras 

Finals day at the 2023 World Rowing Cup II was a display of Para rowing realisation. Not one, not two, but five World Best Times were broken and, as one commentator noted, there wasn’t much of a tail wind, it was actually pretty flat! Our favourite Norwegian Dancing with the Stars rower, Birgit Skarstein, got the ball rolling by breaking her own World Best Time in the PR1 women’s single sculls, crossing the line in a time of 9:47.83.

Not to be outdone, Ukraine’s Roman Polianskyi came flying down the course in the PR1 men’s single sculls and took out the new World Best Time by a staggering five seconds! Polianskyi commented he’d recently been able to train at home in nearly normal conditions and he celebrated with a time of 8:50.38.

Then Lauren Rowles and Gregg Stevenson of Great Britain took to the water in the PR2 mixed double sculls. 8:01.59 later they had beaten their own World Best Time. Rowles put their time down to more aggression and more belief. Wow, Lauren and Gregg, share out some of that belief. It was then the newcomers from Down Under, Jed Altschwager and Nikki Ayers, who also beat their own best time, which they had set earlier in the week in their Heat, in the soon-to-be Paralympic, PR3 Mixed Double Sculls, with a new time of 7:07.02.

And to top it off Great Britain did it again in the PR3 mixed coxed four. They had set the record a year ago in Racice and knocked a second off it on Finals day sunday. Francesca Allen, Giedre Rakauskaite, Morgan Fice-Noyes, Edward Fuller and coxswain Erin Kennedy are doing their best to continue the legacy of the four.

Rambaldi does it for Mondelli

There was more than rowing on Luca Rambaldi’s mind as he raced with Matteo Sartori in the men’s double sculls. Sunday was the birthday of his former teammate Filippo Mondelli who died of osteosarcoma bone cancer in his left leg two years ago. Mondelli would have been 28 years old on Sunday, and perhaps competing for a gold medal with Rambaldi.

As the local Italian crowd celebrated the gold that Rambaldi and Sartori – the son of three-time Olympic medallist Alessio Sartori – had secured, Rambaldi could not hold off his tears when he jumped out of the boat and spoke to the media in the mixed zone, while receiving accolades from teammates, family and friends.

Add to an emotional day, a late injury a week before the competition, that almost forced Rambaldi to withdraw from the event, and you have all the ingredients of a dramatic win – the only gold medal for the Azzurri in the Olympic & Paralympic boat classes on home waters. What a way to make “Pippo” proud.

The Rising Arakawa

In the land of the rising sun, there’s surely one performance that raised a lot of attention. Probably more known for lightweight rowing, Japan has a new rowing hero: Ryuta Arakawa, who picked up a first-ever bronze medal for his country in the men’s single sculls– the first ever international medal in a heavyweight boat class.

Arakawa is not a newcomer in the rowing scene. He started rowing the single internationally in 2017, and while the first few years were inconsistent in terms of results, his fourth place in the Pair last year at the 2022 World Rowing Cup II was already an impressive performance. Later in the year, he just missed out on a qualification to the A-Final at the Worlds, but won the B-Final against top names in the circuit such as Ben Davison, Trevor Jones, Bastian Secher or Piotr Plominski.

In Varese, Arakawa set the tone early by winning both his heat, in which he set the fastest time of the six heats, and his quarterfinal. He rowed superbly in the semi, finishing within 5 seconds of reigning World Champion Olli Zeidler. And despite a slow start in the Final, he rowed through Belgium’s Tim Brys and never looked back to earn a historical bronze medal for his country. Advised by former Olympic Champion of France, Xavier Dorfman, Ryuta Arakawa is rising – and can follow the example of another former lightweight sculler that had success in the single: Stefanos Ntouskos.

The Craig/Grant show continues

In the battle for the most dominant crew of women’s rowing today, and in the absence of Karolien Florijn and the Simona Radis / Ancuta Bodnar combination, Emily Craig and Imogen Grant of Great Britain certainly had a point to prove in Varese. On Saturday, pushed by the Olympic silver medallists of France in their semi, the Brits responded by clocking a new World Best Time in 6:40.47.

Seeing the silver medallists from the 2022 Worlds, Molly Reckford and Michelle Sechser for the first time this season, Craig and Grant had some work to do to keep their unbeaten streak alive. And the Americans pushed them to the brink, leading them by almost 1.5 seconds at the 1500m. It took Emily and Imogen a fantastic sprint and a photo finish to win yet another gold medal, and keep their domination on the lightweight women’s double intact.

Special mention also to Imogen Grant, now holder of two World Best Times – in the lightweight women’s single and double sculls. She joins a very closed club, with only Grace Prendergast and Kerri Williams (in the W2- and W4-) and Eric Murray and Hamish Bond (in the M2- and the M2+) currently holding two World Best Times.

The clean sweep in the sweep events for the GB Men’s Team…

How often does it happen that your nation wins the Pair, the Four and the Eight? Well, at a World Cup, it only happened twice before – and it was already done by the GB men’s team. They just did it again this weekend – and all three wins came in dominating fashion.

First, there was redemption for Tom George and Ollie Wynne-Griffith, after being beaten by Roman Roeoesli and Andrin Gulich at the Europeans in Bled. This time the Brits had a clean start and never looked back on the Swiss and the Aussies. Then, there was the Four of Wilkes, Ambler, Aldridge and Davidson, who led the final from start to finish and beat the reigining Olympic Champions of Australia, back for the first time in this combination since Tokyo. And then, the Men’s Eight, unbeaten in the Olympic cycle, who had an easier race than the European Championships where they almost got pipped over the line by the Romanians. The GB programme, led by Louise Kingsley, is achieving great results event after event.

… and the clean sweep for Germany in the openweight singles

Germany might not currently be the rowing powerhouse it used to be, but there’s no denying that they have two of the best single scullers on the planet. When the water is flat, there’s just no beating Oliver Zeidler – we’ve seen that time and time again, and Sunday was another demonstration of his fantastic power. Within two seconds of Robbie Manson’s World Best Time at the 1000m mark, he controlled the second part of the race to finish short of a WBT, but enough to get another gold medal at a World Cup. He, and the Swiss lightweight men’s double, are the only crews that will have a shot at the hat-trick – winning all three World Rowing Cups in the same season -in Lucerne.

In the absence of Florijn and Twigg – we will see them both in Lucerne – it was Alex Foester time in the women’s single. She is the two-time World Under 23 Champion in this boat class, won in fantastic fashion last year in Lucerne, only to come up short in her semi at the worlds. But at just 21 years old, the sky is the limit for Alexandra – and she proved it in Varese with a convincing win over bronze medallist from last year, Tara Rigney, and London 2012 bronze medallist, Kara Kohler. While the Deutschland-Achter is trying to regain top form, it looks like the flagship boat for Germany is now the single.

Join us when we all meet up again, this time for the 2023 World Rowing Cup III in Lucerne, Switzerland where the cows are quiet but the cow bells aren’t.