After a year’s hiatus, World Rowing’s Top 10 list of best rowers is back for 2021. Led by rowers in team boats and results from the Tokyo Olympics, at the top for women was a pair from New Zealand and for the men a Dutch crew led the way.

Here’s how the Top 10 is decided : World Rowing’s Top 10 rankings – Formula

Top 10 Women

Grace Prendergast and Kerri Gowler of New Zealand filled the top two women’s spots. The duo’s 2021 success included being the only rowers in Tokyo to win more than one medal. Prendergast and Gowler won Olympic gold in the pair and then joined their country’s eight to take silver. This 2021 success comes after a string of medals as well as owning the World Best Time in the women’s pair.

China’s quadruple sculls of Xiaotong Cui, Yang Lyu, Yunxia Chen and Ling Zhang came in the next four positions for women. This is the first time China has been in the Top 10. These four rowers not only won gold at the Tokyo Olympics, but in the final they also set a new World Best Time. Cui came into the Chinese quad in 2018 and has remained there ever since. She began her international career by winning the four at the World Rowing Junior Championships in 2012. Cui stroked the quad in Tokyo.

The Olympic Champion double sculls of Romania’s Ancuta Bodnar and Simona Radis were in spot seven and eight respectively in the top 10 list. Bodnar and Radis’s lead-up to Tokyo was exceptional, winning every race they entered in 2020 and 2021. They are just 23 and 22 years old.

Positions nine and ten were taken out by Australia’s Jessica Morrison and Annabelle McIntyre. The duo was part of the winning women’s four at the Tokyo Olympics. They also raced in the pair finishing seventh overall. For Morrison Tokyo was her second Olympic Games and for McIntyre, who stroked the four, Tokyo was her first Olympics.

Top 10 Women

1. Grace Prendergast
2. Kerri Gowler
3. Xiaotong Cui
4. Yang Lyu
5. Yunxia Chen
6. Ling Zhang
7. Ancuta Bodnar
8. Simona Radis
9. Jessica Morrison
10. Annabelle McIntyre

Grace Prendergast (b), Kerri Gowler (s), Women's Pair, New Zealand, 2020 Olympic Games Regatta, Tokyo, Japan — Grace Prendergast (b), Kerri Gowler (s), Women’s Pair, New Zealand, 2020 Olympic Games Regatta, Tokyo, Japan / World Rowing/Detlev Seyb

Top 10 Men

For the men the Dutch quadruple sculls took out the top four spots. Leading the bunch, and helped by his longevity in the sport, was Dirk Uittenbogaard. Filling the bow seat in his country’s quad, Uittenbogaard started rowing internationally 14 years ago with the 2007 World Rowing Junior Championships. He medalled at the 2016 Olympic Games in the eight but 2021 truly was Uittenbogaard’s year, capped by Olympic gold.

Abe Wiersma, Tone Wieten and Koen Metsemakers took position two, three and four in the men’s Top 10. All of them were part of the Dutch Olympic Champion quad. Wiersma took up two-seat. He has been a member of the quad since 2017 and before that he joined his country’s senior team as part of the eight. Wieten came into the quad in 2018 and before that was in the Dutch men’s eight winning a medal at the Rio Olympics as part of this boat. Stroke of the quad, Metsemakers came into the boat in 2017 having made the Dutch team for the first time in 2016. Tokyo was Metsemakers first Olympic Games.

In winning at Tokyo the Dutch quad not only set the Olympic best time but also the World Best Time.

The remaining places for the Top 10 men included some of the most popular gold medals scored on the Sea Forest Waterway at the Tokyo Olympics. Position five and six were filled by the affable Irish lightweight men’s double sculls of Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy. The partnership between O’Donovan and McCarthy started in 2019 with McCarthy taking over from Gary O’Donovan who had won silver with Paul at the Rio Olympics. As well as winning gold – Ireland’s first ever Olympic rowing gold – at the Sea Forest Waterway in Tokyo, O’Donovan and McCarthy set a new World Best Time with a phenomenal race in their semifinal.

The Croatian pair of Valent and Martin Sinkovic come next on the Top 10. The brothers won gold at Tokyo to add to their collection of Olympic gold in the double sculls from Rio and a silver in the quad from London 2012.

Matthieu Androdias and Hugo Boucheron became the toast of France when they won the double sculls at the Tokyo Olympics. It was a shaky lead-up for the duo over the quadrennial, but they pulled it off when it counted the most, going from sixth at the Rio Olympics to the gold medal at Tokyo.

Top 10 Men

1. Dirk Uittenbogaard
2. Abe Wiersma
3. Tone Wieten
4. Koen Metsemakers
5. Paul O’Donovan
6. Fintan McCarthy
7. Valent Sinkovic
8. Martin Sinkovic
9. Matthieu Androdias
10. Hugo Boucheron

Lucas Theodoor Dirk Uittenbogaard (b), Abe Wiersma, Tone Wieten, Koen Metsemakers (s), Men’s Quadruple Sculls, Netherlands, gold, 2020 Olympic Games Regatta, Tokyo, Japan / World Rowing/Detlev Seyb

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