Crews test pre-season speed at Memorial ‘Paolo d’Aloja’

Rowers from 28 nations gathered in Piediluco, Italy over the weekend to set the tone ahead of the start of the international regatta season, testing speed and combinations on the final run into the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Serbia’s Jovana Arsic won the women’s single sculls on Saturday by nearly three seconds ahead of Austria’s Magdalena Lobnig, with Czechia’s Kristyna Neuhortova coming in third. Both Arsic and Lobnig qualified these boats for their respective nations Paris at the 2023 World Rowing Championships.

On Sunday, Arsic won again, but Diana Dymchenko of Azerbaijan was second with Neuhortova once again in third. Dymchenko just missed out on an Olympic qualifying spot in Belgrade last year and will be aiming to make it to Paris at one of the upcoming qualifying regattas.

The Greek lightweight women’s double sculls of Dimitra Eleni Kontou and Zoi Fitsiou are also yet to qualify for Paris, but showed good early season speed beating a good field in the openweight women’s double sculls on both days of the regatta. Magdalena Lobnig joined her sister Katharina in the W2x on Sunday and the duo finished fifth.

Italy also failed to qualify the lightweight women’s double sculls for the Olympics last year. Reigning Olympic champions Valentina Rodini and Federica Cesarini were edged into second by their compatriots Stefania Buttignon and Silvia Crosio in Sunday’s final, showing domestic competition is fierce ahead of final qualification.

Meanwhile Tunisia’s Khadija Krimi, part of the LW2x crew which qualified for Paris at the recent African qualification regatta, raced in the lightweight single in Piediluco, finishing second to Cesarini on Saturday and winning on Sunday.

On the men’s side, Serbia’s sculling prowess also showed. Nikolaj Pimenov won the men’s single sculls on Saturday with Martin Mackovic third, as Davide Mumolo of Italy took second. On Sunday, Pimenov and Mackovic teamed up to win the men’s double sculls ahead of Saturday’s winners Luca Rambaldi and Matteo Sartori of Italy. Rambaldi and Sartori finished fourth at the 2023 World Rowing Championships, qualifying for Paris.

Czech lightweights Jiri Simanek and Miroslav Vrastil, fresh off strong showings at the 2024 World Indoor Rowing Championships in February, were fourth in the M2x both days.

Reigning Olympic champion Stefanos Ntouskos was fifth in the M1x on Saturday and did not race on Sunday. Meanwhile 2024 Versa Challenge champion Joel Naukkarinen of Finland is looking to transfer his erg strength to the water; he was 10th overall in the M1x on Saturday, dropping to 13th on Sunday.

Italy picked up gold medals in the men’s quadruple sculls on both Saturday and Sunday, with Romania taking the wins in the women’s quadruple sculls.

On the sweep side, the hosts won the men’s pair, four and eight both days; Greece and Czechia both picked up one gold and one silver in the women’s pair, while the Netherlands won the women’s four twice and Italy took two golds in the women’s eight. In the pairs, the results set up the Italian men and the Greek and Czech women well ahead of Paris, with all three crews having qualified for the Olympic Games in Belgrade last year.

Attention for many crews will now turn to the upcoming international regatta season, which kicks off on 12 April with World Rowing Cup I in Varese.