An electrifying finals day closed out the first world cup of the Olympiad in Varese, the crews setting the lake alight in scorching conditions, under the distant glimmer of snow on the tops of the nearer Alps. The threatened thunderstorms didn’t materialise and another tail-ish wind with a hint of cross kept races blessedly fast in the heat.
The Netherlands and Britain topped the medal table, three golds apiece and the Dutch ahead on minor medals, but both were balked of some victories they might have hoped for after the European results. Standout performances from Australia’s men’s four and PR1 M1x Erik Horrie, the New Zealand men’s pair, the Chinese women’s double and a racy pair of former Swiss lightweights widened the spread of victories on the last day of racing.
Erik Horrie (AUS) was delighted to win the men’s PR1 single ahead of home favourite Giacomo Perini, the two men embracing on the dock, but missed Roman Polianskyi (UKR) and Benjamin Pritchard (GBR), the latter absent through illness. “[Pritchard] is an unbelievable athlete,” said Horrie. “Like I said when he started, he’s going to be the next big thing in para-rowing, and for once I was right! He’s the fastest man in the PR1 class in the world, and I guess I’m the oldest. But everyone involved in the sport has to realise, it’s not about the trophies, it’s not about the medals. It’s about how you carry yourself within the boat park, and around the other athletes.”
“The Americans gave us a good tussle”
Eleanor Brinkhoff
Horrie came within three seconds of the old world best time, but that has now been lowered by Pritchard by another ten seconds as of two weeks ago. “For me today I just went out there playing around with the settings in the boat, and I honestly didn’t know how I’d go, didn’t know if it would just be a crash and burn, but this old person hung on, and so it worked out well. I’d rather go for the time when Ben’s beside me.” The women’s PR1 single was taken by Eva Mol (NED) ahead of Tomomi Ichikawa (JPN) in a two-horse race.
One theme of this season is former lightweights successfully switching to openweight, with the permanent erosion of lightweight classes from the Olympics. This came to a head in the men’s doubles on Sunday, when Raphael Ahumada (SUI) and the highly experienced Gabriel Soares (ITA) found themselves repeating their erstwhile LM2x rivalry, this time in the M2x with new partners Kait Schaetzle (SUI) and another ex-lightweight Neil Torres (ITA).
As had often happened before the Swiss ended on top but narrowly, while New Zealand’s Finlay Hamill and Benjamin Mason pushed into the top three for the second thousand to claim bronze. (Hamill also has lightweight history). “It’s good [being openweight],” said Soares afterwards. “Enjoying eating, no need to think about the weight and how to cut the weight before the race, so we are enjoying it.” “The difficulty for me now is to put on the weight, so you have to eat a lot: a change of lifestyle,” said Ahumada. Noticeably, all this weekend’s ex-lightweights dealt very well with the extreme heat with no sign of collapse, a reminder of how much extra stress cutting weight to row has on the body.
This regatta saw the Dutch mostly going into smaller boats than at the Europeans, a tactic which initially worked to the advantage of the Polish men’s scullers, who strengthened their quad having won the M2x in Plovdiv, and led off at first. But they were balked of gold by the Italians, who seized the initiative in the second 500m and never lost it, adding to their history of golds in Varese.
“I don’t know what’s going on with Melvin, I hope he’s OK”
Simon van Dorp
Meanwhile the Dutch W4x made hay while the sun shone, importing Tessa Dullemanns from the double to stroke the quad with great success for a narrow win over Germany. “It was quite a new experience to [join] a quad that is so… …together, synchronised,” said Dullemanns. “That was very tough for me at the beginning but these girls, wow, they are so strong. It’s incredible to feel that whenever we get a push, the split’s going down. I was very proud of them.”
The latest iteration of the Dutch women’s double, Roos de Jong and Benthe Boonstra, were beaten fair and square by the most cheerful Chinese oarswomen on the circuit. 2020 Olympic and 2022 world W4x champions Chen Yunxia and Zhang Ling raced at the front beep to beep but were challenged hard by the Dutchwomen. “It was pretty intense,” said Boonstra. “We had a pretty good race but we’ve been together for just a week, with no idea where you stand. It was a pretty good result, but now I want more.” “A very exciting race,” said Zhang through their interpreter, she and her crewmate delighted to have shown their abilities in the smaller boat. But did they expect to win? “Yes! And yes, we are staying in the double,” added Chen.
Hosts Italy equalled the Dutch total of eight medals, but their only other gold came from the women’s pair of Alice Codato and Laura Meriano, who have entered this season with a bang. With Romania absent they had the pairs final all their own way over Nika Vos and Linn Van Aanholt (NED), with the Czechs bringing up the rear.
The Dutch also had to be content with silver in the men’s four, because Australia’s quartet, back to being coached by Chris O’Brien, returned to winning ways, pushing through the top Dutch four before halfway and then commanding the race. “We were keen on taking them, obviously it’s been a weird year post-Olympic and we’re not in our prime condition, and we changed things one and a half weeks ago,” said stroke Mick Makker (NED1). “We were hoping to catch the Australians in the sprint finish, because I felt we had something in the tank for the last 500, and then last 250 the whole field moved in on us and the Australians moved out.”
“It was a very tough weekend with the heat”
Jacob Plihal
The Italian duo were less successful stern-pairing the women’s eight, which went to the British (again) in a trio of golds ending the day for the Brits. The two eights bookended another triumphant win for Lauren Henry in the women’s single, unsuccessfully pursued by Juliane Faralisch (GER) and Liu Ruiqi (CHN) while Tokyo silver medallist Anna Prakatan faded to sixth. Henry just missed breaking the world cup best time for the event by a fifth of a second, but was fully in command despite pushes from the other scullers. “I knew that if I just stayed in my boat and carried on, my speed would see me through,” she said.
Rumours abound that if Karolien Florijn, who is focusing on studies at the moment, does turn up to the worlds in Shanghai in October, it may be in a crew boat: she is unlikely to be back to full speed or fitness in time. So the moment when Florijn and Henry meet could well be postponed until next year, by which time Henry may have cracked the world best time, which she describes as “achievable”. “I always say if you want to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best, and in the last three years she proved she was the best,” said Henry. “But I’m sure at some point we will have a race, and I’m looking forward to it.”
Prakatan wasn’t the only one to struggle in the heat: Melvin Twellaar (NED2) was unable to muster his previous speed in the men’s singles final, dropping back to leave team-mate Simon van Dorp (NED1) claiming a strong gold after being pushed hard by US Olympian Jacob Plihal. “I don’t think I could have hoped for more in this race, so I’m pleased,” said van Dorp. “I don’t know what’s going on with Melvin, I hope he’s OK. It’s been very cool to do this weekend with Melvin: I know from the outside it looks like we’re big rivals but we’re actually really good friends, I’ve been blessed with having him [around], it almost felt like we were doing the tournament together instead of against each other. He’s a very tough rower, a very quick racer, and I hope we can keep helping each other get better and better, and then we’ll see who gets to do the world championships.”
“It was a very tough weekend with the heat and four rounds of racing, very tight turnaround and very tight races,” said Plihal. “I was just happy I was able to step through the regatta without having to push very hard in each round.”
The game is very much on in the two eights categories, the two British wins more emphatic than in Plovdiv but nevertheless pushed hard by the American women and German men respectively, with Australia (W8+) and Italy (M8+) not far behind.
“Like I said when he started, he’s going to be the next big thing”
Erik Horrie
The women’s eights mostly doubled up, including five of the victorious British eight. “They did a really good job of quick turnaround, getting off to recovery, and then being able to absolutely send it on the water again,” said Eve Stewart (GBR). “We said ‘we’ve won one, why not win the next one by more’, said Eleanor Brinkhoff (GBR). “The Americans gave us a good tussle, coming back from the 1k, but we were really closed, just listened to Jack our cox, and responded.”
The men’s race was tighter, though the British did lead all the way. “It was pretty awesome,” said bow Paul Klapperich (GER). “I wasn’t sure who was going to win it, and I think the visitors [GBR] didn’t know it either, so we did a pretty decent race. Maybe we can turn around for the next time.” Which will be Lucerne, the British packing it and Henley Royal into a busy ten days.
“It was a really fun race to be involved with, it’s always a privilege to be involved in international competition,” said Matt Rowe (GBR). “Today I think we saw some really great racing from all six boats.” “We spoke about, as a crew, having a real collective buy-in from all nine of us including the cox Will,” said Sam Nunn (GBR). “There was no second-guessing any of the calls, it was all eight of us buying into what he said. I’m really excited to be part of it.”
So despite the creation of mixed eights, the classic versions both look in fine form and ready to thrill for another four years. Roll on Lucerne and Henley.
