Image Credit: World Rowing
2023 Champions: Imogen Grant and Emily Craig (Great Britain)
Entries: 5
With the lightweight doubles removed from the Olympic program, the number of entries in this event has declined significantly. However, it is shaping up to be an exciting race, with six Olympians vying for the world title.
China is fielding a combination of international debutant Ling Fu and Paris Olympian Jiaqi Zou in the lightweight double. Fu qualified for Paris with sixth place at the 2023 World Rowing Championships and placed 13th at the Olympic Games. From 2022 to 2024, she achieved five World Rowing Cup A-final placements and one silver medal.
Khadija Krimi of Tunisia is a three-time Olympian in this event, placing 20th in Rio, 16th in Tokyo, and 11th in Paris. She has also raced the lightweight single on many occasions, with her best result 11th in 2018. Selma Dhaouadi competed with Krimi in Paris and at the World Rowing Championships in 2023, where they placed 18th. Dhaouadi has a U23 world silver medal in the quad from 2015 with France. At the Lucerne World Rowing Cup this year, they competed in the openweight event and placed 15th, ten seconds behind NZL2.
Twins Alessia and Valeria Palacios from Peru finished 14th at the Paris Olympic Games (one place behind China) in this event. They also placed 19th at the 2023 World Rowing Championships and fourth at the 2023 Pan American Games. The sisters have also raced in the lightweight pair, picking up a U23 world silver medal in 2022 and a senior world silver medal in 2024. This season, both raced the lightweight single in Lucerne, with Valeria placing sixth and Alessia placing tenth.
Mutiara Putri of Indonesia is the final Olympian in the field—she placed 17th in this event in Tokyo at just 17 years old. This year, Putri won the B-final in the lightweight single at the U23 World Rowing Championships. Putri and Chelsea Corputty placed 20th at the 2022 World Rowing Championships and competed at the Varese World Rowing Cup this year, finishing 11th in the heavyweight double (fourteen seconds behind NED2).
Wing Wun Leung from Hong Kong has been racing internationally since 2019, but this will be her first competition in a double. Her best result in the single was 17th at the 2024 World Rowing Championships, and she placed 20th in 2022. This season, she competed in the four in Lucerne, finishing tenth. Her partner, Claire Susan Burley, is making her international debut.
Prediction
Tunisia ahead of the home team, China, with Peru taking the bronze.
