2025 European Rowing Championships – Men’s Eight Preview

Image Credit: World Rowing

Entries: 8

2024 Champions: Sholto Carnegie, Rory Gibbs, Morgan Bolding, Jacob Dawson, Charlie Elwes, Tom Digby, James Rudkin, Tom Ford, Harry Brightmore. (Great Britain)

Great Britain are the defending Olympic, World and European Champions in the men’s eight, but for 2025 they have a completely fresh line-up. Matt Aldridge won bronze in the coxless four in Paris and was in the four that won gold at the last three European Rowing Championships. Dave Bewicke-Copley was part of a dominant men’s eight that won the World and European titles in 2022, but an injury in 2023 robbed him of a possible seat in the Olympic crew last season. Sam Nunn and Will Stewart were both part of the gold medal-winning men’s four in 2022 and were spares for the Olympic team in Paris. Stroking the boat is Matt Rowe, a former U23 world champion who made his senior debut last year, winning a bronze medal in the coxless four at the final World Rowing Cup. Also in the crew are a triumvirate of U23 world champions in Miles Beeson, Fergus Woolnough and cox Will Denegri. The final member of the crew is Washington Husky alumnus and IRA champion, Archie Drummond.

It’s no secret that the German men’s eight has been struggling for the last few seasons; they last won the European title back in 2020 (when the British did not enter). Their fourth place at the Paris Games was an encouraging end to a disappointing Olympiad. For 2025, they bring four Olympic athletes back in Mattes Schoenherr, Benedict Eggeling, Olaf Roggensack and cox Jonas Wiesen. Also in the crew are the 11^th-placed men’s pair from Paris, Soenke Kruse and Julius Christ. The non-Olympians in the boat are strokeman Theis Hagemeister (16^th in the men’s four at the 2023 World Rowing Championships), 2024 U23 pair silver medallist Tobias Strangemann and finally Paul Klapperich (sixth in the eight at the 2024 U23 World Rowing Championships).

The Netherlands hopes to claim their first-ever European men’s eight title and beat a GB men’s eight for the first time since 2019. Their crew includes no fewer than five Paris Olympians. At bow is men’s quad Olympic champion Leonard Van Lierop (who was part of the eight that won silver at the 2022 World Rowing Championships). In the three-seat is Eli Brouwer, who was part of the seventh-place men’s four in Paris, whilst in the four-seat is Olav Molenaar, an Olympic silver medallist from the eight. The stern pair are fellow silver medallists Jan Van der Bij and Mik Makker. Also in the crew is another member of the 2023 silver medal men’s eight, Guillaume Krommenhoek, with the last two seats being taken by Jorn Salverda and Wibout Rustenburg, who were both members of the quad that finished seventh at last year’s European Rowing Championships. Coxing the crew is Jonna De Vries, making her first international appearance since coxing the Dutch women’s eight in 2013.

Romania will also be a strong contender for the title, which would be their first in this boat class at the European Rowing Championships. They come to Plovdiv with six of the crew that finished fifth in Paris, including Mihaita Vasile Tiganescu, Laurentiu Danciu, Bogdan Baitoc, Constantin Adam, Mugurel Vasile Semciuc and cox Adrian Munteanu. Stroking the crew is another Paris Olympian, Leontin Nutescu, who was ninth in the quad. The other crew members are Claudiu Neamtu, double U23 world champion in 2023, and Dumitru-Alexandru Ciobica, who won U23 World Rowing Championship gold in 2019.

Italy are one of the few men’s crews doubling up in Plovdiv; Nunzio Di Colandrea and Giovanni Codato are also in the pair with Francesco Pallozzi, Alfonso Scalzone, Giovanni Abagnale and Allessandro Gardino racing in the coxless four. The two boat members who are not racing in other events are Davide Comini and Salvatore Monfrecola. They both competed at the Paris Olympic Games, Comini in the 12^th-place pair and Monfrecola in the eight. The crew is coxed by Alessandra Faella, who also coxed the boat in Paris.

The other crews racing are Austria, Poland and Ukraine. Austria has the core of their men’s eight that finished tenth at the 2023 World Rowing Championships, along with former lightweight single sculler Julian Scheoberl and U23s Vitus Haider and Fabian Gillhofer.

Poland brings a crew that mixes U23 youth and senior athletes. Szymon Tomiak, Tomasz Lewicki and Oskar Streich won silver in the four at the 2023 U23 European Rowing Championships, and Michal Szpakowski and Mateusz Wilangowski won the B-final in the men’s four at the Tokyo Olympics.

Ukraine’s crew includes 2022 world lightweight men’s double bronze medallist Igor Khmara alongside Yevhen Burym and Danylo Yakobchuk from the crew that finished sixth at last year’s European Rowing Championships. Also in the boat are three of the crew who finished 11^th in 2022, Yuriy Ivanov, Artem Derkach and Ivan Futryk.

Prediction

This could be another cracker, and it is very difficult to call at this stage of the season; the British will be quick as they don’t really know how to produce men’s eights that aren’t rapid. Germany will be desperate to lay down a marker for the opening event of the Olympiad, but the Netherlands look strong. I’m going for GB to just squeak ahead of the Netherlands, with the Germans going bowball to bowball with the Romanians for the bronze. I reckon there will be less than half a length separating all four crews.