Even if this years World Rowing Championships are being held in Munich, athletes might be forgiven if they have China on their minds a little bit. Beyond the fact (never simple, in and of itself) that Munich serves as the main qualifier for the Olympics in Beijing next summer, the Chinese have, in short order, transformed their national rowing team into a fairly formidable bloc, one that, beyond simply qualifying for Beijing, might take a fair amount of medals doing so.
During this past world cup season, Chinese crews have showed up in unprecedented form on several occasions, with a couple of "holy smokes!" wins along the way, witness the China W2x win over the Evers-Swindell sisters, or the Chinese M8+ taking a souped up British 8+ down to the sprint before settling for a silver at Amsterdam in June. Couple this with six gold medals for China at the Junior Worlds, held on the Shunyi Olympic course in Beijing, and you have all the makings of a squad revved to the gills for this regatta.
Onwards, however; there are a record number of countries (68) entered at Worlds this year, and a can-do LOC is helping matters by offering free housing and meals to crews from developing countries. The deepest event is the LM2x, with 33 entries, while the M4+ is the shortest field, with 5 crews entered.
The Eights
With the defending champs Germany getting underway slowly during the World Cup season, the void at the top has been filled by a few different crews, but most notably it is a resurgent Canadian M8+ that heads to Munich as one of the crews to beat; Canada won the Grand at Henley and followed that up a week later with a win over the Germans at Lucerne. The Canada crew has size to go with the results, and should figure as the front runners.
The US M8+ has not raced internationally this year, and is a fairly new look outfit, but has size and experience. Hiding in the bow four is US M8+ Olympic Gold Medallist Wyatt Allen, who has spent the years since Athens racing the 1x and 4x.
In the Women's Eight, the international front runners are Germany and the Netherlands, with the US having taken the most recent side-by-side at Lucerne. The US Women, defending champs, have 8 of 9 back in the crew and should be seasoned enough to make a good run at repeating. Anna Mickelson is repeating her doubling between the eight and pair, while partner Megan Cooke is rowing the pair only this year.
Late news of several top-shelf "un-retirements" from Romania, with three Athens Gold Medallists back in the crew, ought to make the going fairly interesting in this event, as Romania has been pretty quiet in this event since the Athens Games.
In the Lightweight Men's Eight, 6 crews will line up for a final only; along with the US, Denmark, Italy, Netherlands, Germany, 2006 surprise medallists Poland are entered.
The Fours
If the Brit M4- had pressure last year to win the worlds at home, it's likely that the pre-Olympic year is a notch up from that. The GB crew has done well this year, and their coach Jurgen Grobler has added a few wrinkles this year by letting the crew row an eight at the Amsterdam World Cup, which they promptly won. Their last outing, albeit with a sub on board, was a solid silver medal at Lucerne behind a Dutch crew that has been creeping up on the Brits for years. If the Brits don't win, it'll be interesting to watch the GB squad's response...recall that in 2003, when Pinsent and Cracknell, up to that point world beaters in the M2-, finished fourth at Milan, Grobler switched his focus to the M4-.
Beyond the Dutch, there are crews from NZ and Italy in the hunt. The US entry here boasts 1/2 of the crew that shocked the GB and Canadian crews in this event at Lucerne in 2004, Beau Hoopman and Bryan Volpenhein, who makes a return to the show after a year away in 2006. Giuseppe Lanzone, of the 2006 M8+ and Matt Schnobrich, who raced this event at Eton last year, complete the US crew.
The Light Men's Four once again lives up to its billing as one of the top events at the championships, with a large and deep field. The big question is whether the Chinese can defend their title. The Chinese did win the Amsterdam World Cup stop, but a resurgent GB crew was very close to them, and in turn won Lucerne three weeks later. Other crews around are the Netherlands, Ireland, Italy and Denmark, who could only manage the Petites at Lucerne, likely one of lightweight icon Eskild Ebbesen's few trips ever to the petite finals, anywhere.
The US entry of Tom Paradiso, Pat Todd, Colin Farrell and Andrew Bolton has some experience, and, with Olympic qualification on the line, may have the goods to step up when it matters.
The Women's Four is a final-only, but with six fairly high-quality crews entered: the US, with 3 of 4 rowers from last years bronze medal outfit making a return appearance, Australia, China, GB, Germany, and, somewhat unusually, a rare women's sweep entry from Italy.
Just 12 years removed from its last appearance as an Olympic event, the Men's Coxed Four is down to 5 entries at Worlds this year, an all-sweep heavyweight brawl of the USA, GB, Netherlands, Italy and Germany. With Olympic Eight gold-medallists Matt Deakin and Dan Beery in the US crew, joined by Sam Burns, Chris Liwski and Ned DelGuercio, the US has a fair bit of pedigree going for it.
The Quads
A banner entry in the Men's Quad (21 crews entered) ought to make this one of the heavy duty events at the championships. This event has been the domain of eastern European crews for the past few years, with former powerhouses like Italy or Germany not even making the medals at Lucerne in July. Defending champs Poland did not race at Lucerne, with Russia winning in their absence, while France and the Czech Republic are also fielding strong crews.
The US Men's 4x is a mix of old and new. Jamie Schroeder, who switched into the crew from the single right after the Pan Am Games, along with Pan Am teammate Deaglan McEachern, are the two changes from a crew that finished 10th at Lucerne, while stroke Mark Flickinger and bowseat Sloan DuRoss, 2004 Olympian in this event, anchor the crew.
The GB W4x had their silver medals from the '06 Worlds upgraded to a gold over the winter when it was revealed that a member of the Russian W4x, winners at Eton, had failed a doping test and the crew was disqualified. Thus, the GB group is the nominal defending champs. That said, the GB quad hasn't seen everything go their way...they lost to the Chinese by a length at Amsterdam. At Lucerne, the Brits won by bit over Germany, which sees the return of Kathrin Boron to international competition. After a year off to have her second child, Boron would be going for her 5th Olympic Gold in Beijing next year.
The US entry in this event is fairly green, with an all-Michigan stern pair in Ellen Tomek (U. Michigan) and Christen Brown (Michigan State), joining Lia Pernell and Liane Malcos.
The Lightweight Men's 4x sees traditional powers Italy, Denmark and Germany going against the likes of Algeria, Serbia and Hungary. The US entry has good experience aboard in the persons of Cody Lowry and Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg, who made up the US LM2x last year.
The Lightweight Women's 4x is likely to be contest between Australia and China, the defending champs in the event, although the GB also fields a strong entry. The US entry is a new crew, who will do their best to compete for a medal.
The Doubles
Estonia's Juri Jaanson is experiencing a second childhood in the double sculls, and with a win in Lucerne under their belts, the Estonian crew, along with the French and two-time Olympic medallists Spik and Cop of Slovenia, should be fighting this one out amongst themselves. A surprising entry from the GB might make some noise as well, while the US combo of Sam Stitt and Matt Hughes finished a fast 7th (winning the Petite final) at Lucerne. Stitt and Hughes have shown good speed this year, so a trip to the A-Finals is not out of the realm of possibilities for them.
After their shock defeat last year, New Zealands Evers-Swindell sisters have made it back to the top this year, winning handily at Lucerne. However, as in other events, the elephant in the room is China, who beat the twins in Amsterdam, but did not race at Lucerne. The Germans, silver medallists last year, are likely still tinkering with combinations as they put two crews into the final at Lucerne. The US entry of Jen Kaido and Ala Piotrowski, likely benefitting from early selection this spring, put a solid 5th place on the books at Lucerne and look to be in the heat, at the very least for an A-Final spot.
The Lightweight Men's Double goes 33 crews deep, and will likely see some of the fiercest racing at these championships. This seems also to be the event with the most stability, gauging by recent results, as last years winners from Eton, Denmark, were still on top of the pile at Lucerne. The margins at Lucerne were tight, with 7 seconds from 1st to 6th place in the A-Final, so the margin for error is tiny.
The US entry of Andy Liverman and Rich Montgomery has seen mixed results from their international racing this spring, with a 17th-place showing at the Amsterdam World Cup to their credit.
The brand-spankin' new US Lightweight Women's 2x of Wendy Tripician and Jana Heere has made a strong debut this season, leading the pack to the 1500m mark in the final at Lucerne before settling for 4th behind Denmark, Canada and Germany. Heere/Tripician also finished 3rd at Amsterdam, so this result was no fluke: the duo has the speed to run with the leaders internationally. China finished 1-2 at Amsterdam ahead of the US, and did not race Lucerne, so they will definitely need to be reckoned with, but after that, it's anybody's game.
The Pairs
Men's Pairs selection in Australia this past season suffered from an embarassment of riches as 2004 Gold Medallist James Tompkins competed for a spot with his old partner and 2006 World Champ Drew Ginn and Duncan Free for a spot in this event leading up to Beijing. The selectors opted to keep Ginn and Free together, with Tompkins moving into the AUS M8+, and Ginn & Free winning Lucerne ahead of New Zealand. Other crews to watch for are France, Canada (with '04 Olympic Silver medallist Barney Williams aboard) and the Skelin brothers from Croatia.
The US entry of Kyle Larson and Olympic Gold medallist Jason Read found winning speed through the trials racing, and will hope to parlay that into even better quality racing at Munich.
Familiar players are on the scene in the Women's Pair, with '05 World Champs New Zealand finishing just ahead of Cooke/Mickelson of the US at Lucerne. Behind them, the previously mentioned newly unretired Romanians took bronze, and will likely have picked up speed by Munich. Also in the mix is the Canadian duo, world champs in 2006, who did not race at Lucerne but beat the US crew by a good bit at the US nationals. The Germans, doubling between the pair and the eight again as in 2006, also did not appear at Lucerne. Traditionally, this is fairly deep event, and with the Australians, also having doubled and medalled in this event and the eight in 2006, also entered, getting to the finals is not a given for any crew.
Thirteen crews contest the Lightweight Men's Pairs, with the heavily-experienced Matt Smith and Simon Carcagno going to bat for the US.
The Singles
The Munich racecourse is the home course for German Marcel Hacker, who will likely row himself under (as he has on numerous occasions in the past, whew) to do well here; the competition is stiff, with two-time defending champ Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand, Alan Campbell of the GB (who beat Drysdale at Henley, but lost to him a week later at Lucerne), the Czech sculler Synek and defending Olympic Champion Olaf Tufte of Norway all in the mix.
The US has no single sculler entered, with PTC's Warren Anderson winning trials but failing to make the time standard to be named to the team. The deeper implication is that the US as a result will not have the opportunity to qualify a Men's Single for the Olympics in Beijing at Munich; by FISA rules, the US will have a final opportunity to qualify a sculler at the Olympic Qualifying regatta in Lucerne in summer of 2008, but that's a tough route to go the summer before the Games.
Belorussian Ekaterina Karsten has shown herself in top form this year, and looks likely to add to her multi-gold medal collection. Zhang of China and Neykova of Bulgaria are ready to race, while US sculler Michelle Guerette, who has a worlds bronze from 2005, has quietly had a very successful summer, winning the single at the Royal Henley regatta.
The Lightweight Men's & Women's Singles are the deepest of the Non-Olympic events, with 26 and 22 entries respectively, as top international lightweight scullers are still jockeying for spots in the Olympic light doubles. Both US scullers in these events are US national team rookies, but showed impressive results at trials. On racing times alone, US LW1x Jen Goldsack looks ready to have a good regatta, while Penn AC's Ivan Baldychev also looks to have the goods for a decent result.
Adaptive Racing
As a sure sign that the Adaptive rowing events at the world championships are beginning to mature, the entries are sizable; none of the four events has less than 12 entries, which speaks to the development efforts of the national federations. In the past few years, the adaptive events have had to overcome a few logistical snafus during competition, but as the quality of the competitions consistently improve, the events will continue to grow in stature.
The US heads to Munich with entries in all four events, the Men's & Women's Adaptive Single Sculls, Adaptive Double sculls and the Adaptive Four with Coxswain. Ron Harvey in the AM1x is a returning silver medallist, while Scott Brown and Angela Madsen have won every gold medal ever awarded in the AM2x, and look to continue this impressive streak in Munich.
Incidentally, while row2k parses these regattas upfront as best we can, those readers whose crystal ball is kicking can head over to rowing.inklingmarkets.com, where "the goal is to examine if the ?Wisdom of Crowds? can accurately predict the winners of top rowing regattas."
Let the racing begin; tremendous luck to all competitors! row2k will be doing extremely complete coverage from Worlds, we hope you enjoy it.
Comments | Log in to comment |
There are no Comments yet
|
row2k's Worlds coverage is brought to you in part by:
row2k's Worlds coverage is brought to you in part by: