Monday Debrief: Potential Paris Preview at World Rowing Cup II

The field at the World Rowing Cup II in Lucerne, Switzerland probably gave us the best preview yet of what we might expect to see at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris now just a matter of weeks away!

A total of 21 nations took home medals from Lucerne with the Netherlands claiming nine in total, one more than Great Britain, although an equal number of golds (five)! In the World Rowing Cup series rankings, the Netherlands started five points ahead of Great Britain and finished the regatta ten points ahead. Here’s the debrief.

New winners in PR1 single sculls

The PR1 women’s single sculls was the first final to be raced on Sunday and the race for gold was epic with the lead changing multiple times during the race between the top three rowers.

It was the Tokyo Paralympic silver medalist Moran Samuel (Israel) who led for the majority of the way, with reigning Paralympic and World Champion Birgit Skarstein (Norway) having brief periods in front. However, Germany’s Manuela Diening was one of just two in the field who has never been to a Paralympic Games and with an epic sprint, she stole the gold from Samuel in the closing stages by less than a second. Definitely one to keep an eye on int he future!

In the men’s event a last-minute medical withdrawal for the reigning Paralympic and World Champion Roman Polianskyi (Ukraine) left the door open for Italy’s Giacomo Perini, who will also be hoping to make his Paralympic debut in Paris.

Fours field wide open

While eyes had been on the rivalry between Australia and Great Britain in the men’s four after AUS got the better of  the British reigning World Champions by 0.03 seconds in the heat, USA and New Zealand got the better of them both in the final. Whilst Great Britain managed to claim the gold, Australia missed out on a medal altogether. This boat class is definitely going to be an epic one to watch on Thursday 1 August 2024 in the final of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games! The field is arguably less open in the women’s four where the new line-up this season for Great Britain comfortably beat the reigning World Champions from the Netherlands. Helen Glover indicated that there may be even more speed to come in the run-up to Paris;

“We’re very happy with the way we won, very controlled race, it’s really our style, the way we want to win. It’s a good mark at this stage of the season, but we know where we want to get to.”

Unbeaten streaks continue…

Great Britain’s Emily Craig and Imogen Grant were back together in Lucerne after Craig had been out on medical grounds during the European Rowing Championships at the start of this month. The duo once again won every race in style on the Rotsee continuing their dominance in this boat class since the disappointment of missing a medal by 0.01 seconds in Tokyo. It was particularly impressive for Craig, who has won gold (in various combinations) in this boat class in Lucerne for the last four years.

Another dominant boat since Tokyo is Karolien Florijn. Florijn won silver in the Dutch women’s four in Tokyo, but has been in the single sculls ever since and has so far picked up two European Champion titles, two World Champion titles and five World Cup wins. That’s an impressive 29 international races winning streak.

…but Van Dorp stops Zeidler’s World Cup winning streak

On the flip side, a winning streak that was broken in Lucerne was that of Germany’s Oliver Zeidler! Zeidler did the hat trick in 2023 winning all three World Rowing Cups, but that’s been ruled out this year after the double World Champion was beaten by Simon van Dorp of the Netherlands in Lucerne!

Zeidler had led the final from the start and for the majority of the race, but in the final quarter looked like he just had nothing more to give. Although van Dorp was also not the fastest in the final quarter, he did enough to get his bow ahead of Zeidler and claim another gold for the Netherlands. After a disappointing Tokyo Olympic Games when he came in as World Champion, but failed to make the final on the Olympic stage, Zeidler will be wanting to make amends in Paris. Speaking after the race, van Dorp said:

“It was clear that we were both blowing up in the last few meters, and I just emptied the tank. I have so much respect for Olli and everything he’s done in the sport, so obviously it means a lot to me”

Dutch sculling on fire

Coached by the World Rowing coach of the Year, Francesco Fossi, the Dutch sculling crews were pretty much on fire yesterday on the Rotsee. When you come home with gold medals in the men’s and women’s single, men’s double and quadruple sculls, and you add a silver medal in the women’s quadruple sculls, that’s a pretty impressive medal haul over a day of racing.

The only crew missing on the medals’ table was the women’s double sculls, but they won World Cup I in Varese and were a few seconds out of the A-Final in Lucerne. Could the Dutch sweep all sculling events in Paris? That never happened in the history of Rowing, but does not sound that unrealistic after Lucerne…

All change in the eights

With four women’s boats and five men’s boats, preliminary races had been held on the Friday which gave us a sense of what might happen in the finals, but it was all change! Great Britain arguably had the biggest turnaround; their women’s eight was well out the back of the pack in the preliminary race but claimed silver behind Canada, who had been third in the preliminary race. Australia was the only crew to miss out on a medal.

Meanwhile, in the men’s eights, the USA had clearly come to Lucerne on a mission to qualify the Paris Olympic Games; which they had achieved earlier in the week. Their impressive performance continued into the preliminary race on Friday when they beat the reigning World and European Champions from Great Britain by nearly two seconds. The British crew turned the result around when it mattered in the final and pipped the American’s to the line by 0.2 seconds in an exciting way to round off the competition. Paris can’t come anytime soon…

Who will win the World Rowing Cup series?

While Lucerne was a great benchmark ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, there’s still one World Cup stage to be completed – the 2024 World Rowing Cup III in Poznan, Poland. Not only will we see some of the qualified crews compete one last time before going to Paris, the event will determine who will win the overall World Rowing Cup series. After two events, only 10 points separate the Netherlands (128 points) and Great Britain (118 points). And while both nations are likely to send their “development” crews to compete on Lake Malta, all can change until the very last race…