Image Credit: World Rowing
Entries: 12
Great Britain arrives in Varese as the in-form crew. Cedol Dafydd, Callum Dixon, Matt Haywood and Rory Harris delivered GB’s first-ever European men’s quad title in Plovdiv, setting a new European Best Time of 5:35.02 in the process. For Dafydd and Harris, it was particularly pleasing as it was their first appearance at a senior championships. Dixon and Haywood were both members of the GB quad that finished fourth at the Paris Olympic Games and fourth at the 2023 World Rowing Championships.
The Netherlands were runners-up to the British in Plovdiv, but for Varese they boat a completely different line-up, which is more of a development boat. It features Nicolaas Dirkzwager, Adam Street, Vosse Meijssen and Percijn van Haeringen. Street, from Eindhoven, is the only one of the quartet to be making his international debut in Varese. Dirkzwager and van Haeringen raced in the quad last season that finished seventh at the final World Rowing Cup and also gave their senior quad (who went on to win Olympic gold) a metaphorical “bloody nose” by beating them at the Holland Beker. Meijssen rowed in the Dutch development eight that finished seventh at the third World Rowing Cup in 2022 and in 2024 finished 12th in the double at World Rowing Cup III.
Bronze medallists in Plovdiv were Poland; they have strengthened their crew for Varese with Miroslaw Zietarski and Mateusz Biskup, European gold medallists in the double, moving back into the boat in which they won Olympic bronze last year. They join Dominik Czaja and Piotr Plominski. Czaja was in the boat in Plovdiv and was also part of the Olympic crew in Paris, which also won the World Rowing Championships in 2022. Plominski also raced in the quad at the European Rowing Championships and was 17th in the double at the 2023 World Rowing Championships. Zietarski and Biskup are two of the most experienced athletes in the field, having raced at both the Rio and Tokyo Olympic Games.
Poland has a second boat racing, consisting of three of their reigning U23 World Rowing Championship gold medal crew, Mikolaj Kulka, Michal Randa and Daniel Galeza. The fourth member of the crew is 2023 European U23 champion Igor Czekanowicz. Galeza also raced at the senior World Rowing Championships in 2023, finishing 11th in the lightweight double.
Italy have three of the boat that won silver at the Paris Olympic Games in Luca Rambaldi, Andrea Panizza and Giacomo Gentili. This trio also raced in the quad at the Tokyo Olympic Games. The final member of the crew is Matteo Sartori, who was in the double in Paris and also raced at the 2023 World Rowing Championships (with Rambaldi), just missing a medal. All four have European and World Rowing Cup medals, but somewhat surprisingly, they missed out on a medal in Plovdiv, finishing fourth.
Italy has a second quad racing, a young development crew with an average age of just 21. Andrea Pazzagli won bronze in the quad at the U23 World Rowing Championships last season. 18-year-old Josef Giorgio Marvucic raced on the Italian U19 team last season, winning European gold and world silver in the quad. Luigi Tommaso Riccelli also steps up from the U19 team, and the final member of the crew is Edoardo Rocchi, who was fifth in the quad at the U23 World Rowing Championships in 2023.
Germany hasn’t won a European men’s quad medal since 2014, and their crew at this year’s championships ended in fifth. They have made one change to that lineup with Til Schindelhauer replacing Ole Hohensee. Schindelhauer, who finished 16th in the double in Plovdiv, joins Tom Graenitz, Felix Heinrich and Oliver Holtz. They all made their senior international debuts in Plovidiv, so in hindsight, a fifth-place finish was pretty encouraging for such a young and inexperienced crew. Graenitz, Heinrich and Holtz were members of the quad that finished fourth at the 2024 U23 World Rowing Championships.
Australia are another country bringing a relatively young and inexperienced crew to the World Rowing Cup. Nicholas Blackman and Johnson Daubney have U23 medals (Blackman silver in the double last year and Daubney a bronze in the quad from 2023). They join debutant Jackson Free, the fourth member of his family to represent Australia (after his grandfather Reg, his father Marcus and uncle Duncan). He raced in both The Diamond Challenge Sculls and Double Sculls Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta last year and has several Queensland state titles to his credit. The fourth crew member is also the most experienced. Alex Rossi raced in the quad that missed Olympic qualification at the Final Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Regatta and raced at both the second and third World Rowing Cups last season.
Czechia finished ninth in Plovdiv but have made two changes to their line-up for Varese. Remaining in the crew from Plovidv are Filip Zima and Jan Cizek. Zima was the U23 world champion in the quad back in 2021, and Cizek won U23 silver last season. Joining these two for Varese are Jan Potucek and Martin Jezek. Jezek was a crewmate of Cizek in the silver medal quad last season, and Potucek raced in the quad that placed 16th at the World Rowing Championships.
The other crews entered are Austria, China and Portugal.
Austria have three of the eight that raced in 2023 and 2024, Michal Karlovsky, Xaver Haider and Jakob Stadler along with senior debutant Fabian Gillhofer (14th in the pair in 2023 at the U23 World Rowing Championships).
China has three of the crew that finished ninth at the final World Rowing Cup of 2024, Xiaolong Mu, Baishun Liu and Quan Zhang, along with debutant Wangjia Wangjia.
Portugal are doubling up in the double with their quartet of Tomas Neves, Andre Pinto, Pedro Rodrigues and Diogo Gonclaves. This is the youngest crew in the event, with an average age of just 20 (three of the crew are still teenagers, with Pinto bumping up the average at the ripe old age of 23). Pinto finished 17th in the single at the 2023 World Rowing Championships and Rodrigues and Gonclaves were both on the Portuguese U23 team at the World Rowing Championships last year.
Prediction
The strengthened Polish quad looks very strong and I think they will take gold with GB in silver and Italy in bronze.
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