Crews to watch at the 2024 World Rowing Cup II in Lucerne, Switzerland

Hot on the heels of the Final Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Regatta, the Rotsee is about to be busy again. The World Rowing Cup series makes its annual stop in Lucerne for the 2024 World Rowing Cup II. After a first event in Varese, that was overall dominated by the Netherlands, the event will see most of the qualified crews for the Olympics and Paralympics face for the first – and maybe, only time – this season before going to Paris. The event will also see Para-Rowing being contested for the first time ever at a World Cup on the Rotsee. Here’s a few of our crews to keep an eye on…

PARALYMPIC EVENTS

PR1 Women’s Single Sculls (PR1 W1x)

While she saw her unbelievable winning streak snapped at the European Rowing Championships, Birgit Skarstein showed in the final that she was still the one to beat in the PR1 women’s single. Even in the absence of Nathalie Benoit of France, Moran Samuel of Israel, Manuela Diening of Germany, or Anna Sheremet of Ukraine have all been on podiums at World Cups or World Championships recently – and Samuel was the only one that managed to beat Skarstein in Hungary. Can she do it again, this time in the Final?

PR1 Men’s Single Sculls (PR1 M1x)

With an impressive ten entries, the PR1 men’s single looks to be another showdown between Roman Polianskyi of Ukraine and Giacomo Perini of Italy. Both have been trading places atop the podiums at World Cups and World Championships – although last month, it was the reigning Paralympic champion of Ukraine that won the European championship title. Can Erik Horrie of Australia be in contention for a gold medal as well? Could we see a Shmuel Daniel of Israel, or Andrew Mangan of the USA sneak into the podium?

PR2 Mixed Double Sculls (PR2 Mix2x)

Only five entries, but a very high-quality field in the PR2 mixed double sculls. We will have a look at the Israeli combination of Saleh Shahin and Shahar Milfelder, who just qualified tuesday for the Paralympic Games. They will face four crews that have already qualifed for the Paralympic Games : The Netherlands, Ukraine, Poland and Ireland.

PR3 Mixed Double Sculls (PR3 Mix 2x)

Four boats highlight the newest Paralympic boat class and all eyes will be on the Ukrainian duo of Stanislav Samoliuk and Dariia Kotyk, who just qualified for the Paralympics, after an epic proposal in Hungary. They will face Egypt, Germany and Mexico, and this will be a good indication of where the crews are a few weeks ahead of the Paris Paralympic Games.

OLYMPIC EVENTS

Women’s Pair (W2-)

The Dutch boat is definitely the one to beat here! Ymkje Clevering and Veronique Meester are reigning World Champions and also current World Rowing Cup leaders. The Australian pair of Jessica Morrison and Annabelle McIntyre haven’t been seen racing internationally since they won silver at the 2023 World Rowing Championships so we’ll see if they are able to challenge the Netherlands this season. Watch out too for the young Greek boat. Coached by the inimitable Giovanni Postiglione, the duo of Evangelia Anastasiadou and Christina Ioanna Bourmpou won silver at the European Rowing Championships a few weeks ago behind a very strong Romanian boat, so it will be exciting to see what they can do in this field.

Men’s Pair (M2-)

All three medal winning boats from last year’s World Rowing Championships will be represented! While the gold and silver medal-winning crews from Switzerland and Great Britain remain unchanged, Ireland has split last year’s pair across two entries for this competition, with members of the four joining in. Great Britain’s Wynne-Griffith and George have got the better of Switzerland’s Roeoesli and Gulich at both World Rowing Cup 1 and the European Rowing Championships so far this season, can the Swiss turn it around home waters?

Women’s Double Sculls (W2x)

A wide open field in this boat class! Current World Rowing Cup leaders are the Dutch duo of Lisa Scheenaard and Martine Veldhuis. The Dutch didn’t race at the European Rowing Championships and, on that occasion, Norway’s Thea Helseth and Inger Seim Kavlie took the gold. Just behind Norway at the Europeans was Lithuania’s Donata Karaliene and Dovile Rimkute, who were the 2023 World silver medallists. The bronze medallists from last year’s World Rowing Championships, Kristina Wagner and Sophia Vitas, of the USA, haven’t raced internationally so far this season, so we look forward to seeing how they have progressed.

Men’s Double Sculls (M2x)

Eyes must be in the Netherlands in this boat class – Melvin Twellaar and Stefan Broenink are reigning World Champions and current World Rowing Cup leaders. It’s difficult to see who might challenge them for gold, but for the other medals, worth keeping an eye on the Spanish double of Aleix Garcia I Pujolar and Rodrigo Conde Romero, who claimed silver at the European Rowing Championships earlier this month, and last year’s bronze medalists from the World Rowing Championships Daire Lynch and Philip Doyle of Ireland. Lynch and Doyle have already shown their form this season when they took bronze at the first World Rowing Cup.

Women’s Four (W4-)

This one could be interesting! The Dutch crew are reigning World Champions. However, Great Britain has changed their line-up since last year’s World Rowing Championships and are unbeaten so far this season having raced at World Rowing Cup I and the European Rowing Championships. Adding the likes of Australia, New Zealand, and the USA into the mix, can the British continue to be leaders in the World Rowing Cup series?

Men’s Four (M4-)

All three medal-winning boats from last year’s World Rowing Championships are back and unchanged! Gold medallists on that occasion, Great Britain, will be keen to overcome Italy, who pipped them to the line at the first World Rowing Cup this season (- and qualified for the Olympic Games just a few weeks ago!). The USA and New Zealand boats took silver and bronze respectively at the World Rowing Championships and we haven’t seen them race so far this season. The Kiwi boat contains two of the reigning Olympic champions from the men’s eight, so plenty of experience on board. Don’t rule out France, either. They made the final at the World Championships, and took bronze at this year’s European Rowing Championships.

Women’s Single Sculls (W1x)

Yes again, we see all three medallists from last year’s World Rowing Championships travelling to Lucerne! Reigning World Champion Karolien Florijn of the Netherlands will be keen to continue her winning streak having won the first World Rowing Cup of this season in Varese last month. It will be great to see the reigning Olympic Champion Emma Twigg racing again, representing New Zealand. Twigg was the silver medallist at last year’s World Championships. We also haven’t seen Australia’s Tara Rigney race yet this season. Rigney has won bronze in the women’s single at the last two World Championships. Keep an eye out for a couple of youngsters including the incredible German sculler Alexandra Foester and of course the reigning U23 World Champion Aurelia-Maxima Janzen, who has just qualified the boat for Switzerland for this year’s Olympic Games!

Men’s Single Sculls (M1x)

With a whopping 29 entries, this is the biggest boat class at World Rowing Cup I. Current series leader Oliver Zeidler has to be the main one to watch – he is keen to repeat his World Rowing Cup hat trick from last year. However, there’s plenty of other experienced names in the field that will be keen to challenge him here in Lucerne not least, the reigning Olympic Champion, Stefanos Ntouskos of Greece. Ntouskos finished just under three seconds behind Zeidler at the European Rowing Championships earlier this month so will be keen to close that gap! The silver and bronze medallists from last year’s World Rowing Championships will also be racing too so are ones to watch. Dutch sculler Simon van Dorp finished just behind Zeidler at World Rowing Cup I earlier this year while New Zealand’s Tom Mackintosh will be keen to make a first international marker of the season ahead of the Paris Olympic Games.

Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls (LW2x)

Can anyone catch the British in this boat class? Emily Craig and Imogen Grant are reigning World Champions and World Rowing Cup leaders so far this season. While they didn’t race together at the Europeans, they’ll be pleased to be reunited to try and defend their winning streak. Potential challengers include the USA – this line-up took silver behind GB at the 2022 World Rowing Championships, but didn’t race together as a crew in 2023. It’ll be interesting to see what Canada can do, too. Jill Moffatt and Jennifer Casson showed in Varese that they are building speed. They have remained in Europe training since then, and will be exciting to see what they can do in Lucerne.

Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls (LM2x)

A packed field of 13 crews including all three medal-winning crews from the 2023 World Rowing Championships! Ireland, Switzerland, and Italy will line-up together once again. The Irish duo of Fintan McCarthy and Paul O’Donovan are not only reigning World Champions but they are also reigning Olympic Champions, so they have to come in as favourites. However, we haven’t seen them racing together yet this season. This has allowed the Swiss and Italian boats to take the gold and silvers at World Rowing Cup I and the European Rowing Championships – and they have won one each so far! It’s hard to look too far beyond those three for the medals, but anything could happen!

Women’s Quadruple Sculls (W4x)

Six crews entered, and all three medal-winning crews from last year’s World Rowing Championships are here unchanged. The gold for Great Britain was a huge achievement last season, having gone through various changes on the sculling side. They missed out on the podium at the first World Rowing Cup of this season, but claimed victory at the European Rowing Championships. Meanwhile, the 2023 World silver medallists, from the Netherlands, repeated the silver medal at World Rowing Cup earlier this season, so are certainly on form. However, they both need to watch out for the crew from China. The line-up has been unchanged for many years and while they only took bronze at the 2023 World Rowing Championships, they were gold medallists in 2022 and are also the reigning Olympic Champions in this boat class. Despite only six entries, this boat class could be very competitive.

Men’s Quadruple Sculls (M4x)

Once again, all three medal-winning crews from the 2023 World Rowing Championships are here, and unchanged! The Netherlands, Italy, and Poland will go head-to-head once again. But can anyone else cause an upset? Great Britain has changed it’s line-up slightly and took silver just behind the Netherlands at World Rowing Cup I with the Swiss boat finishing fourth on that occasion. The Swiss crew went on to take silver at the European Rowing Championships so is definitely in a good place and will be keen to be on the podium during a home regatta.

Women’s Eight (W8+)

Four boats line up in the women’s eight and while there’s plenty of experience across the crews, we haven’t seen many of them on the international scene so far this season. The British crew is the only crew that has raced so far and they have two silvers so far – one from the first World Rowing Cup, where they had doubled-up in the fours, and the second from the European Rowing Championships where they finished behind the strong Romanian crew. They’ll be keen to be in the middle of the medal podium here in Lucerne.

Men’s Eight (M8+)

Great Britain’s crew that is reigning World Champions is completely unchanged and is unbeaten so far this season. The Netherlands and Germany have had attempts to overhaul the British so far this season, but not managed to. It will be interesting to see what Australia have done; their crew is slightly altered from the line-up that took bronze at the World Championships with three members of the men’s four joining the crew. The USA just qualified for Paris a few days ago at the Final Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Regatta, so it will be interesting to see where they slot into the rankings here at the World Rowing Cup II.

INTERNATIONAL EVENTS

Lightweight Women’s Single Sculls (LW1x)

Olivia Bates from Great Britain claimed gold at the first World Rowing Cup of this season, but Lucerne will see many competitors who weren’t in Varese including all three medallists in this boat class from last year’s World Rowing Championships; Siobhan McCrohan of Ireland, Kenia Lechuga of Mexico and Sophis Luwis of the USA. The two scullers who took medals behind Bates in Varese will both come to Lucerne also, so it is looking to be a competitive field!

Lightweight Men’s Single Sculls (M1x)

The gold medalist from World Rowing Cup 1, Patrick Rocek of Italy is looking to defend his title in the second event of the series. None of the medallists from last year’s World Rowing Championships will race so it is looking possible for him although he’ll need to watch out for France’s Baptiste Savaete, who did make the final at the World Championships and also win bronze at the European Rowing Championships earlier this month.

PR2 Men’s Single Sculls (PR2 M1x)

Six entries highlight this boat class, and with both Ireland and Italy entering two boats, we will certainly see one of these two nations on the podium. Gian Filippo Mirabile is the reigning silver medallist at last years’ World Championships and might enter this event as the favourite. Watch out too for Steven McGowan (IRL2), out of the PR2 mixed double sculls that qualified last year for the Paralympic Games.

PR2 Women’s Single Sculls (PR2 W1x)

This will be a head-to-head battle between Svitlana Bohuslavska of Ukraine and Angeles Gutierrez of Mexico, with the former being a World Champion in 2022 in the PR2 mixed double sculls. It would be interesting to see how she performs in the single.

PR3 Men’s Pair (PR3 M2-)

Another head-to-head battle, this time between Australia and Ukraine. Ukraine won a gold medal at the 2023 World Championships in the same two-boat final, can they repeat on their perfomance against another quality opponent?