Image Credit: World Rowing
Entries: 34
World Cup I Winner: Simon Van Dorp
The Lucerne World Cup will essentially be a rematch of the A-finalists from the European Rowing Championships against the B-finalists from the Varese World Rowing Cup. This will paint an excellent picture of where each sculler stands early in the quadrennial.
The 2025 European champion Yauheni Zalaty will be looking for another medal in Lucerne – he is the Paris Olympic silver medallist, 2024 World Rowing Cup II bronze medallist, and placed seventh at the 2023 World Rowing Championships.
Leading at the 1000m mark at Europeans was the Greek sculler Stefanos Ntouskos, but he faded to his fourth consecutive European silver medal in this boat class. However, he has one of the most valuable gold medals of all, being the Tokyo Olympic gold medallist in this discipline. He also made the A-final in Paris, finishing sixth.
Finishing one place behind Ntouskos at both the 2025 European Rowing Championships (claiming the bronze medal) and the 2024 Olympics (winning the B-final) was Mihai Chiruta of Romania. He spent 2022 and 2023 in the quad, winning three medals and placing sixth and seventh at the World Rowing Championships, before moving into the single.
Marc Weber had a gutsy race at Europeans and ended up a close fourth place. He has mainly raced in the German double since 2020, placing eleventh at the Tokyo Olympic Games and ninth in Paris. He has excellent results in the single from earlier in his career – a U23 World Rowing Championships silver in 2018 and gold in 2019 plus a 2022 World Rowing Cup III bronze medal. Hopefully, he can stand on the podium in Lucerne, since the German single spot may be reshuffled when Ollie Zeidler returns to racing.
Rounding out the A-final at the European Rowing Championships was Giedrius Bieliauskas of Lithuania, who raced to tenth place in Paris and has a European bronze in this event from 2024 and a World Rowing Cup I bronze from the quad back in 2022.
The only two A-finalists from the Varese World Rowing Cup are Jonas Slettemark Juel (Norway) and Wei Han (China). Slettemark Juel picked up the bronze medal, his first international medal since a bronze in the single at the 2019 U23 World Rowing Championships. He was part of the Norwegian quad that placed eighth in Paris and recently placed tenth in the double at the European Rowing Championships. Han of China came within half a second of the Norwegian in the semifinals and placed fifth in the final – an auspicious performance for this athlete who placed seventh at the 2024 Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in the single and fourteenth in the quad at the 2023 World Rowing Championships.
Logan Ullrich of New Zealand placed seventh at the Varese World Rowing Cup, ending a remarkable streak of winning a medal at every international event he has ever raced. However, a B-final win is a strong start to his singles campaign after seven years sweeping in fours – two age-group World medals were followed up with three senior World Rowing Cup medals, a 2023 World Rowing Championships bronze, and the Paris Olympic silver medal.
Aidan Thompson is racing as Great Britain 1, and is on an upward trend with eighth place in Varese after placing fifteenth at European Rowing Championships. In 2023, he made his international debut and finished in the B-final at two World Rowing Cups in the double. Thomas Barras is racing as Great Britain 2. A former World bronze medallist (2017) in the single, he is returning to this boat class after spending the past two quadrennials in the quad, resulting in a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympic Games and fourth in Paris. At Varese, he subbed into the quad to win bronze, and also finished in 14th place in the double.
Bruno Cetraro Berriolo of Uruguay made history when he made the A-final of the lightweight double in the Tokyo Olympic Games. In 2023, he transitioned to the heavyweight single category and qualified for the Paris Olympics, placing 12th. He placed ninth in Varese ahead of fellow former lightweight Mikhail Kushteyn (Estonia) who is also a Paris Olympian, placing seventh in the quad.
Making his single debut this season is Piotr Plominski of Poland – he raced at the European Rowing Championships and Varese in the quad, picking up a bronze and a silver medal. He was the 2023 U23 World champion in the single and silver medallist in 2021, but has had mixed results at the senior level with his best result 11th at the 2022 World Rowing Championships. In 2023, he made it all the way to the final of The Diamond Challenge Sculls at Henley Royal Regatta.
Another exciting entry is Bastian Secher, who moves out of the Danish four where he placed seventh at the European Rowing Championships and fourth at the 2024 Final Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Regatta. He took the bronze medal behind Plominski at the 2021 U23 World Rowing Championships and made three senior A-finals in 2022-2023. His best result in the single was ninth at the 2022 World Rowing Championships.
Placing ninth in the single at the 2023 World Rowing Championships, Dovydas Nemeravicius may be a dark horse even when seeded as the second Lithuanian single. In the quad, he is a former world champion (2017) and two-time Olympian, placing ninth in Rio and tenth in Tokyo. He also has European medals in the double as recently as 2022 and placed sixth in the single in 2023.
Two athletes that underperformed in Varese compared to their Olympic results were Ryuta Arakawa (JPN) and Lucas Verthein Ferreira (BRA). Arakawa placed 11th in Tokyo, ninth in Paris, and seventh and eighth at the 2022/2023 World Rowing Championships. He scratched the D-final in Varese so it’s likely he was struggling with illness or injury and we hope to see him closer to form in Lucerne. Verthein Ferreira placed 12th in Tokyo and 15th in Paris, along with winning the gold medal ahead of Jacob Plihal at 2023 Pan American Games. In form, he could be a top-ten contender in Lucerne.
One to watch for LA 2028 may be Fedi Ben Hammouda of Tunisia, who has shown a steady rise through the U23 ranks. He progressed from 18th at the 2022 U23 World Rowing Championships to 13th in 2023 to seventh in 2024. He likely won’t feature strongly in Varese, but seeing him continue to develop will be exciting.
Prediction
Yauheni Zalaty with another win, Slettemark Juel (NOR) taking the silver, and Stefanos Ntouskos (GRE) in bronze ahead of Weber (GER) and Ullrich (NZL).
