Welcome to Lago di Varese, the lush Lombardian lake surrounded by distant Alpine mountains. It’s the first day of the first world cup and like the athletes we are buzzing to be here.
For those not at the European Championships, this will be a first taste of the new progression system which dispenses with repechages, and instead requires crews to win or come second in their heats to guarantee progress, crews finishing outside the top two rely on being one of the fastest losers. For example, the last women’s single sculler to make it through to Saturday’s semifinals was Switzerland’s ex-lightweight Olivia Nacht, who was 0.06s quicker than Australian Olympian Laura Gourley.
Singles
Soaring temperatures made life hot and hard for the athletes on the water. “It was tough with the heat, even though it was so early. When you finish it’s very heavy,” said Belgium’s W1x Mazarine Guilbert. “I’m happy that I came second. It was a close race with Brazil. I’m very happy that that’s over, and I’m looking forward to the semifinals.”
Great Britain’s newly crowned European champion Lauren Henry beat Guilbert to win the second of three women’s singles heats. Henry has great momentum: she was ten or more seconds quicker than the other heat winners, Uzebekistan’s Anna Prakatsen, who won silver in Tokyo, and Germany’s Juliane Faralisch.
It was a double shift for the men’s singles: five heats in the morning and quarterfinals in the afternoon. Belgian Olympian Tim Brys made a good start to the regatta winning a tight race against another ex-lightweight, Uruguay’s two-time Olympian Bruno Cetraro Berriolo. Ahead of this regatta Brys announced that the 2025 season will be his last.
The Uruguayan and Belgian scullers made it to their respective quarterfinals, where Brys kept the Dutch powerhouse Simon van Dorp honest, and held off a fast finish from Great Britain’s Aidan Thompson, while Cetraro Berriolo finished behind Jacob Plihal (USA). The American Olympian won both of his races, the first, against Norway’s Jonas Slettemark Juel, by 0.09s.
Brys isn’t the only Belgium sculler in the semifinals. Gaston Mercier sculled well to finish ahead of Estonia in the second quarterfinal which was won by Melvin Twellaar. According to the commentators Twellaar seemed to let go of his oars to adjust a heart rate monitor mid-heat, whether that’s true or not the Dutch Olympic silver medallist looked strong winning both his heat and quarterfinal.
New Zealand’s Olympic men’s four silver medallist Logan Ullrich showed impressive top end speed albeit uncertain pacing in the third quarterfinal, won by Juel. It was Ullrich’s second ever singles race, so his learning curve is likely to be a steep one. After starting fast, fading mid-race and drifting out of the qualifying spots, Ullrich outsprinted Italy’s Davide Mumolo (ITA) to finish in third place behind China’s Wei Han.
Pairs
Sibling rivalry was writ large in the first heat of the women’s pair. Italy’s European silver medallists Laura Meriano and Alice Codato took first place ahead of Chile’s Abraham sisters, who made a big effort in the final 500m to burn off Croatia’s Jurkovic sisters and Swiss Olympians Lisa Loetscher and Celia Dupre.
The second heat of the women’s pairs saw a fantastic fight between the Dutch and British. Having led by a canvas for most of the second half Eleanor Brinkhoff and Megan Slabbert (GBR1) were unable to hold off the fast-finishing Nika Vos and Linn van Aanholt (NED1), who took first place on the line by just 0.17s. Czechia and Australia 1 placed first and second, respectively, in the third heat.
“We were very surprised, because the start was pretty good, so we went in front of the field in the first ten strokes, which was pretty impressive,” said bow of the Czech pair Anna Santruckova. “The rest of the race was just fine because we were ahead of the rest and we just held it. The rowing was pretty nice.”
It was a dicey first race from the Dutch men’s pair. The Olympic champions in the men’s quads Lennart van Lierop and Finn Florijn scrambled to outsprint Uzbekistan’s Fazliddin Karimov and Dilshodjon Khudoyberdiev in the first heat, which was won by Croatia’s Loncaric brothers.
“It’s different from racing the quad, so we have to learn and adjust a bit. It’s more about balance and skill and rowing together and less about going fast,” said Florijn. Van Lierop added: “We didn’t have a lot of time training, I think this is the ninth time we row together in the pair, so getting used to it. But it’s a fun boat class.”
Denmark overhauled Croatia’s Sinkovic brothers in the final 500m of the third heat, leaving the triple Olympic champions in a battle with Czechia for second place: the Croatians held on by 0.33s. This followed a tussle between Switzerland and the second Dutch pair in the second heat, ultimately going the way of the Europeans men’s eight silver medallists Olav Molenaar and Jan van der Bij (NED2).
New Zealand’s Oliver Welch and Benjamin Taylor won the final heat of the men’s pairs, while the European silver medallists from Italy took second place in the sprint finish ahead of the Australians.
Doubles
The Dutch double were the fastest qualifiers of the two women’s doubles heats, but it was a controlled performance from the Tokyo women’s quad Olympic Champions from China, who had a comfortable margin over Great Britain in the second heat.
“It was very very hot out there,” said Vwairé Obukohwo (GBR), “that sounds so British! It’s nice to cross the line and know that you’re into the A final rather than waiting, twiddling your thumbs and praying for good luck with the progression times!”
It will be interesting to see by how much the new Dutch duo of European champion Roos de Jong and Olympic women’s four champion Benthe Boonstra, the Dutch W1x national champion, can step up. Sunday’s medal race should be a good one.
There were four heats of men’s doubles – all bar one of the winners had at least one ex-lightweight on board. The showcase of ex-lightweight talent started with a one-two in the first heat. Italy’s Niels Torre and Gabriel Soares, who just missed the podium in Plovdiv, held off Belgium’s Tibo Vyvey and Marlon Colpaert.
Margins blew wide open in the second half of the second heat as the two Aussie crews settled a domestic score in lanes five and four, which allowed Switzerland’s Raphael Ahumada and his partner Kai Schaetzle to scull away to victory on far side. Another ex-lightweight New Zealand’s Finn Hamill, together with Benjamin Mason, won the fourth. And Poland’s Jakub Wozniak and Konrad Domanski, European Under 23 champions in 2024, took the third heat.
Para singles
Sadly, Great Britain’s Paralympic and European PR1 M1x champion Benjamin Pritchard withdrew from racing for medical reasons, so his showdown with Australia’s Paralympic medallist Erik Horrie, who won the second heat, will not come to pass.
“This is only the early part of the season; world cups are great but everyone is going for the World Championships so it’s one of those things. I haven’t had any downtime leading into this race,” said Horrie, who planned to do a weights session later in the afternoon. “It’s all about consistent training.”
Pritchard’s withdrawal allowed for a comfortable first heat win for the much-loved Mexican, Michel Munoz Malagon. Malagon, who is often seen whizzing about the boat park on his skateboard, will likely face off against America’s Andrew Mangan for bronze.
Mangan finished third in the second heat behind Italy’s Giacomo Perini. Mangan, whose sister is a two-time Olympic Alpine skier, is hoping to represent USA at the Los Angeles Paralympics. Last year he finished fifth at the Paris qualification regatta, 4.59s behind Malagon.
The gold medal race could be a spicy contest between Perini and Horrie. At Paris Perini lost Paralympic bronze after being disqualified for having a mobile phone in his boat during the final, it meant Horrie – who reportedly initiated the protest on the water – was promoted from fourth to third place.
The are only two PR1 W1x at this world cup: the Netherlands beat Japan by over a minute in the first race of the day. The other two para preliminary races in the morning were won by France (PR3 M2-) and Australia (PR3 Mix2x).
Eights
The day ended with wins for the British men’s and women’s eights in their preliminary races. The British women were pushed hard by the Americans, who placed second ahead of Australia.
The Australian men finished in fifth place ahead of China. At the front of field Great Britain dominated; dispatching an early attack from one of the two Italian eights, and then stayed composed in the final few hundred meters, comfortably ahead of second place Germany.
That’s a wrap for the first day of racing, things are only going to get hotter tomorrow. Bring it on.
