Image Credit: World Rowing
Entries: 11
The first World Rowing Cup of the season kicks off on 13 June in Varese. Despite being only two weeks after the European Rowing Championships, ten of the 11 crews entered are making their season debut at this regatta. Three countries are entering multiple crews, but that won’t mean the racing is any less exciting – internal battles for selection add spice to the external battles for medals!
Despite being a new combination, the Netherlands has an excellent chance of matching the Dutch result from 2024. Paris silver medallist in the quad and Tokyo bronze medallist in the double, Roos De Jong, is fresh off a gritty win at the European Rowing Championships. Benthe Boonstra, Paris gold medallist in the four, joins her. Since Boonstra is the national champion in the single and recently made the A-final at the European Rowing Championships in that event, this new double should be even stronger than the combination we saw two weeks ago.
Unchanged from the European Rowing Championships is the crew of Freya Keto and Vwaire Obukohwo of Great Britain. They finished in fifth place, about 15 seconds back from the Dutch, and they will be looking to match or better that result in Varese. Obukohwo won bronze in this event at the 2022 U23 World Rowing Championships and silver the following year. Keto placed sixth in the double at World Rowing Cup III in 2024.
China’s crew have not raced yet this season, but have a wealth of experience together in the quad event – they were Olympic champions in Tokyo and placed sixth in Paris, as well as collecting a gold and a bronze medal from World Rowing Championships in 2022 and 2023. Ling Zhang is a three-time Olympian who also raced to sixth place in the quad in Rio, and Yunxia Chen placed fourth among a strong field in the single at a World Rowing Cup in 2022. This combination is the premier Chinese sculling boat and should be a major medal threat.
Grace Joyce and Katheryn Flynn of the United States also step onto the scene for the first time in 2025. Grace Joyce is a Paris Olympian, placing ninth in the quad, Pan American Games champion in the quad, and silver medallist in the eight. She placed second at the US Winter Speed Orders in March. Flynn placed sixth at the same event and is representing the USA for the second time after an 11th-place finish in the quad back at the 2019 U23 World Rowing Championships. This combination should be in the hunt for medals (and catch them racing for a medal in the mixed eight as well).
Switzerland has entered two combinations, with their top boat including Salome Ulrich and Fabienne Schweizer. Schweizer finished fourth in the quad in Paris and the 2023 World Rowing Championships, and recently placed eighth in the single at the European Rowing Championships. Before moving into the quad, she placed 12th in the double at the 2022 World Rowing Championships with Nina Wettstein. Ulrich became a U23 world champion in 2021 in the quad (along with Wettstein), and spent most of 2023/2024 in the senior double, placing 16th at the World Rowing Championships 2023. This top combo should be fighting for a top-five finish with GBR.
The second Swiss combination of Wettstein (who also placed fifth at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in 2024, missing out on an Olympic spot) and Olivia Roth (two-time U23 world medallist in the double in 2023/2024) will be hoping to push into the A-final right behind SUI1 but may fall just short depending on the next two crews.
New Zealand’s top combination is reuniting seven years after winning an U19 World Rowing Championship bronze medal together back in 2018. Kathryn Glen is the current national champion in both the single and double, and is the more experienced of the two athletes. She raced to a sixth-place finish in the quad at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta and a fifth-place finish in the double at World Rowing Cup III in 2024. She is joined by Stella Clayton-Greene, who placed 13th in the single at the same World Rowing Cup and seventh at this year’s national championships. Nationals had extremely slow conditions, so it is hard to tell what their current form is – but this crew will likely be able to make the A-final.
Italy was on fire in women’s sweep events at the European Rowing Championships, but Varese will be the first time we see their sculling program under new coach Antonio Colamonici (previously of Romania). The double combination includes two former lightweights, Ilaria Corazza and Sara Borghi. In 2023, Corazza won a silver medal in the light single at the U23 World Rowing Championships and followed up with tenth place at the senior equivalent. Borghi also picked up a U23 silver in 2023, but in the more competitive lightweight double event. She also won a U23 bronze medal in the heavyweight quad in 2021. On paper, this crew may not look like an A-final contender, but I would not be surprised if the Italians break some Swiss or Kiwi hearts with a fast time in the heats.
A development combination from the Netherlands, Iris Van Den Berg and Isabel Van Opzeeland, who have both been in and around A finals at the U23 World Rowing Championships in eights, will also be racing. They should have a good battle in the B-final against the second crew from New Zealand, Sophie Egnot-Johnson (second at NZL nationals) and Ella Cossill (who qualified the NZL four for Paris by winning the B-final at the 2023 World Rowing Championships). Indonesia has sent a lightweight crew, Chelsea Corputty and Tokyo Olympian Mutiara Putri.
Prediction
Netherlands on top of the podium again, with China taking silver and the USA taking bronze.
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