Image Credit: World Rowing
Entries: 23
In the condensed opening salvo of the 2025 international rowing season, we are already into our second event of the season. The beautiful Lago di Varese, in the northwest of Lombardy, plays host to the opening regatta of the World Rowing Cup series for the Los Angeles Olympiad.
As this is just the second race of the new cycle, it is to be expected that many lineups remain in flux. For instance, the newly crowned European champions from Poland are racing in a quad this weekend, with Jakub Wozniak and Konrad Domanski moving in the opposite direction. This established combination has been together for some time, winning silver at the 2023 U23 World Rowing Championships before winning gold the following year. Racing for the second time at the senior level, they hope to continue the Polish success in this boat class.
The best combination from Plovdiv that has stayed together is the Italian duo of Neils Torre and Gabriel Soares. Both former lightweights, Soares won silver in Paris in the lightweight double while Torre was the team’s spare, winning bronze in the lightweight single at the World Rowing Championships in Saint Catharine. As they settle into the heavyweight ranks, they will aim to improve their fourth-place finish from the European Rowing Championships. The second Italian crew is far younger, with two 2024 U23 World Rowing Championships medallists taking on the ITA2 moniker.
Coming west from Australia are two crews. The first, Oscar McGuiness and Mitchell Reinhard, are two former lightweights who won the openweight national title at the end of March. On their last cross-continental trip, they finished sixth place in a strong field at last year’s Varese World Rowing Cup. This year, the established combination will be aiming to improve. Alongside them, the AUS2 crew is Tokyo bronze medallist Jack Cleary, pairing up with senior debutant Harrison Fox, a former junior world champion in this boat class. From this new combination of youth and experience, the selectors will aim to have a different advantage from the established Adelaide combination as they plan for the next four years.
A similar selection policy has been pursued by Belgium, who send two doubles. The first, Aaron Andries and Tristan Vandenbussche, are the most experienced pairing in the entry racing in the fourth successive season together, having won an age-group world title in 2022, before attempting to qualify for the Tokyo Olympic Games. Back for a second Olympic cycle, they opened their campaign by winning the B-final in Plovdiv and will be looking to step up into the top tier of crews this season. Alongside them is the BEL2 combination of Tibo Vyvey from the Paris lightweight double, alongside Marlon Colpaert, the lightweight single from the 2024 season. Having previously competed for a seat during the last cycle, they will now collaborate to measure themselves against the best heavyweight combinations.
British Rowing has also entered two combinations this weekend, with the return of their combination from the European Rowing Championships. In Bulgaria, James Gare and Tobias Schorder only qualified for the B-final, resulting in a disappointing 12th-place finish. For this high-powered nation, men’s sculling has been their weakest squad over the past few years, but there was a strong sign of improvement as the quad was crowned European champions. These doubles will be aiming to help that cause. The other crew pairs double-Olympian Tom Barras with senior debutant James Cartwright as the selectors seek to understand how their athletes stack up against the best in the world. A silver medallist in Tokyo, Barras will maintain high standards as this doubles group seeks to rise to the standards set by the larger group.
One country that hasn’t struggled in men’s sculling in the previous Olympiad is the Netherlands, who have won seven medals across the last three major global championships. After entering a scaled-down squad for the European Rowing Championships, they are at full strength for Varese with an interesting squad. In the NED1 crew, we have Gert-Jan van Doorn and Lucas Keijzer, both members of the silver medal-winning quad in Plovdiv. Van Doorn moves into sculling this season after winning Olympic silver in the eight in Paris, having made his international debut in a junior double scull in 2015. The other Dutch combination is a more developmentally minded duo of Thijs Ruiken and Beer Florijn. The brother of Karolien and Finn, and the son of Ronald, Beer is in the minority of Florijns as he has not won an Olympic gold medal. This weekend, the 20-year-old makes his senior international debut, as he builds towards the Los Angeles Games, where he might join his golden bloodline.
The only crew in the entry with two Paris Olympians, the Swiss double comprises Raphael Ahumada, who placed fourth in the lightweight double, plus Kai Schaetzle from the ninth-ranked coxless four. This crew, both still 24 years old, finished sixth at the European Rowing Championships, which they will no doubt be looking to improve this weekend. Schaetzle came through the ranks as a sculler, only moving to the sweep group in 2023, returning the two oars this season, will not face too much of a challenge as they look to build their season through the World Rowing Cups towards the World Rowing Championships in Shanghai.
Since the end of the Paris Olympic Games, no name has shot up in the world of rowing like that of Finn Hamill as the young Kiwi secured victories at the coastal endurance World Rowing Championships before dominating strong fields in the United States at both the Head of the Charles and the Head of the Schuylkill. He continued this success, beating world best time holder Robbie Manson to win the New Zealand National Championships. This weekend, he makes his senior debut on the classic rowing scene in a double with Ben Mason, a member of the Kiwi quad who raced at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta. With this combination of pedigree and exciting talent, this will be an interesting crew to watch this weekend.
Across the remainder of the field, several countries are blooding in new combinations this weekend and, in many cases, giving senior debuts to athletes. One of the most notable of these is the United States’ Michael Herman, who makes his first flatwater national team at the age of 32.
Prediction
Predictions are always tough with the cycle being so young, as there is very little data on any of the crews. That said, I will pick the Dutch crew of van Doorn and Keijzer to take gold ahead of the first Italian crew and the New Zealand double.
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