It’s time for the youngsters to shine. The 2024 European Rowing Under 19 Championships in Kruszwica, Poland, will welcome rowers from 26 European member federations.

Many of these athletes will compete internationally for the first time and will be hoping to get some proper racing experience – with their views set on the World Rowing Under 19 Championships later this season in St Catharines, in Canada. Here are the rowers to watch racing 1 to 2 June.

The men’s single sculls event does feature some of the 2023 competitors, mixed with the next generation of Under 19 rowers. It is worth keeping an eye out for Panagiotis Markygiannis of Greece, who won a silver medal at last year’s World Rowing Under 19 Championships in Paris. The women’s single sculls has twelve entries, and the name to watch is surely Bianca Camelia Ifteni of Romania – she is the reigning World Rowing Under 19 Champion and will look to assert her domination on this boat class.

Bianca Camelia Ifteni, Women’s Single Sculls, Romania, 2023 World Rowing Under 19 Championships, Paris, France © Detlev Seyb / MyRowingPhoto.com

The men’s and women’s double sculls often attract large entries and this year is no exception. The men’s double sculls is a packed field and the favourites must be Greece’s Nikolaos Cholopoulos and Konstantinos Giannoulis, with the former finishing second at the World Rowing Under 19 Championships in 2022, and attempting to qualify this boat for the Paris Olympic Games a few days ago. Chasing them will be Artiom Diordiev and Alexandr Matronitchi of Moldova, and Valters Sejans and Emils Niks Donova of Latvia, both crews having already raced at the World Championships last year. The women’s double sculls sees several of the competitors from the 2023 European Rowing Under 19 Championships returning, with silver medallist Gavriela Lioliou of Greece looking to improve on her performance from last year.

Romania often dominates the men’s and women’s pair, especially at the Under 19 and Under 23 level. On the men’s side, the combination of Mateus Simion Cozminiciuc and Fabrizio Alexandriu Scripcariu won a gold medal in the four last year, so they will come in as heavy favourites. The reigning World champion in the U19 women’s pair, Gabriela Tivodariu, is back to defend her title with a new partner – Iulica Maria Ursu. The Romanian pair will face six other crews at this event.

Moving on to the bigger boats; The men’s quadruple sculls has 12 entries, making it a packed field. Many crews have athletes that competed at the World and European Rowing Under 19 Championships in 2023, but with the absence of the reigning World Champions from Germany, this is a wide open field, with Great Britain and Italy being the early favorites. The women’s quadruple sculls is going to be tight, with crews from Greece, Italy, Czechia and Romania all looking to get on the podium. Keep an eye too on Poland who always perform well in that boat class.

The women’s four has eight entries and Romania is certainly the favorite with three World Rowing Under 19 medallists from 2023 in that boat class competing at these European Championships. There are also nine entries in the men’s four and Romania and Italy are definitely in the running for a medal. The coxed fours have four entries on the men’s side, and two on the women’s side, and Romania is looking strong on both events.

Rounding it out are the eights. The men’s eight has five entries, including Romania who always perform very well in the big boats at U19 level. Keep an eye too on Italy who has entered a very experienced young crew and has got some great results in sweep boats in 2023. In the women’s eight, it is likely to be a battle between Italy and Romania with athletes that have already picked up World and European medals for both nations last year.

Racing starts Saturday 1 June at 9.30 am, and the medals’ races will commence Sunday, 2 June at 11.40 am CET.

In 2008, the European Rowing Junior Championships were introduced. The age category was changed from Junior to Under 19 at the end of 2020, and came into effect at the end of 2021.

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Rowers to watch at the 2024 European Rowing Under 19 Championships in Kruszwica

Glorious day for Romania at the 2024 European Rowing Under 19 Championships

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