Who to Watch in Amsterdam

An added feature will be the men’s and women’s single joining with the Koninkijke Holland Beker Cup which includes winnings of €3000 for first place. Will Karsten do it once again? Has Drysdale managed to slip into the northern hemisphere summer? Read on.

Women’s Single Sculls (W1x)

Rumyana Neykova is back in action. The Olympic silver and bronze medallist took 2006 off to have her second baby and will be working on gaining fitness as she builds up to the Beijing Olympics. Neykova will be able to test herself against current World Champion Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus, France’s Sophie Balmary (fourth at the first Rowing World Cup) and Frida Svensson of Sweden who finished a disappointing seventh at the first World Cup and will be looking to step up a notch.

Xiuyun Zhang of China is giving herself another international racing chance by doing the second Rowing World Cup and will aim to improve on her fifth placed finish from Linz/Ottensheim, Austria.

Men’s Single Sculls (M1x)

Two-time World Champion Mahe Drysdale is part of the squad of New Zealanders that make their 2007 international debut at Amsterdam. This race doubles as the Dutch Holland Beker Trophy with the added incentive of a cash prize of €3000 and the coveted trophy and all of the big players will be there.

Drysdale will face the top three from Linz, Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic, Great Britain’s Alan Campbell and Marcel Hacker of Germany who have already warmed up their racing speed at the start of this month. Synek’s first place finish will give him a boost of confidence over Drysdale who has admitted that he expects the weekend will be tough. Says Drysdale, “I am still a little behind where I was this time last year at the higher rating pieces.”

Olympic Champion Olaf Tufte of Norway and Belgium’s Tim Maeyens round out a classy and large field as well as last year’s Holland Beker winner, Lassi Karonen of Sweden who says he will be going out of his way to defend his title.

Women’s Pair (W2-)

Kim Crow and Sarah Cook of Australia beat out a strong United States showing at the first Rowing World Cup despite doubling their number of races by also padding out the middle of their country’s eight. The Australian selectors are doing it again at Amsterdam as they test rowing phenomenon Crow who, in just her second season of rowing, already has a World Rowing Championships bronze medal and now Rowing World Cup gold.

Crow and Cook will double up again, this time to face the best from New Zealand, Juliette Haigh and Nicky Coles. Haigh and Coles are last year’s world silver medallists and after finishing with gold in 2005 the duo say silver has motivated them to get back on the top of the dais. Watch out also for Germany’s top sweep combination Nicole Zimmerman and Elke Hipler. With these entries the event looks to be much more serious than the first round. Zimmerman and Hipler, however, will have the added pressure of also racing in their country’s eight.

Men’s Pair (M2-)

As reigning World Champions, Drew Ginn and Duncan Free continue to train back in Australia, world number twos Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater of New Zealand arrive in Europe. They will face the newly enthused Croatian brothers, Niksa and Sinisa Skelin who shot out of the start of the final at the first Rowing World Cup and fought a tight race to finish second behind Great Britain. With the British crew racing in an eight at this regatta, Twaddle and Bridgewater may find their main competition coming from the Skelins.

Also arriving on the scene to debut internationally for 2007, the best of South Africa, Donovan Cech and Ramon Di Clemente, will be looking to step up from their disappointing 2006 season where, for the first time in six years, they did not secure a berth in the final.

Watch out also for Andreas Penkner and Jochen Urban of Germany and the Czech Republic’s Jan Schindler and Jakub Makovicka. These two crews finished within a split second of each other at the first Rowing World Cup taking third and fourth place respectively.

Women’s Double Sculls (W2x)

China’s duo of Qin Li, 26, and Liang Tian, 21, were together for the first time at the Rowing World Cup in Linz/Ottensheim and shook up the doubles mix by winning. They held off number two from last year’s World Rowing Championships, Britta Oppelt and Susanne Schmidt of Germany. The experienced Schmidt, who has spent much of her career in the eight including the 2004 Olympics, has now been paired up with two-time Olympic gold medallist from the quad, Manuela Lutze as coach Jutta Lau strives for the best doubles combination. Lutze comes back from a post-2004 Olympics break and after finishing 9th in the double at the first Rowing World Cup, the German combinations have been altered to bring these two experienced athletes together.

Back in the mix, after a disappointing third place finish in 2006, Olympic and former three-time World Champions, Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell of New Zealand will be pressing to make their mark again at the head of the field. Watch out also for the Russians. Irina Fedotova is racing with Julia Kalinovskaya. This event has definitely stepped up a level from the first Rowing World Cup.

Men’s Double Sculls (M2x)

At the first Rowing World Cup the finals race was the tightest of the day. Just 1.32 seconds separated the entire six-laned field and at the end of it the reigning World Champions, Adrien Hardy and Jean-Baptiste Macquet of France had fallen. Instead Great Britain’s Matthew Wells and Stephen Rowbotham joined the long list of British winners at Linz.

Wells and Rowbotham are back to defend their World Cup lead and again will face the French who will not be caught out again in this tight field. Estonia has not sent their bronze medal crew of Allar Raja and Igor Kuzmin. This time Raja is in the single and their number two duo of Jueri Jaanson and Tonu Endrekson will fly the Estonian flag with the Czech Republic giving Vaclav Chalupa and Milan Dolecek another go.

Keep an eye out also for the Slovenians. Luka Spik and Iztok Cop always win a medal when they pair up and after a not-so-successful stint in singles at the first Rowing World Cup, the Olympic gold and silver medal duo will be hoping to click back together for this important Olympic qualification season.

Men’s Coxless Four (M4-)

Great Britain has entered an unknown line-up removing their World Champion four and entering them in the eight to keep them, in coach Juergen Grobler’s words, “fresh”. This leaves the top spot open for the first time since 2005 and the Netherlands look to be the most likely crew to fill the position. The crew of Geert Cirkel, Matthijs Vellenga, Jan-Willem Gabriels, Gijs Vermeulen are always in the top three and regularly finish second behind Great Britain.

Also up for the challenge will be France who finished an impressive third at the first Rowing World Cup. Watch out for Germany. They are continually mixing and matching their combinations and when the crew clicks they click.

Women’s Lightweight Double Sculls (LW2x)

The Danish duo of Katrin Olsen and Juliane Rasmussen gave the field a shake-up at the first Rowing World Cup when they trumped the reigning World Champions and World Best Time holders Dongxiang Xu and Shimin Yan of China. This time Denmark has entered two crews splitting up their winning combination so that Rasmussen is now racing with Kirsten Jepsen in the number one crew. Perhaps Denmark is performing some World Cup style seat racing?

Meanwhile Xu and Yan have been given another chance together to prove their worth against the field which includes three other Chinese entries including the crew of Haixia Chen and Hua Yu who beat Xu and Yan at the first Rowing World Cup. The two crews finished second and fourth respectively.

After spending the first Rowing World Cup competing as heavyweights Finland’s Sanna Sten and Minna Nieminen are back in their chosen event. They will be up against regular rivals Poland and Germany.

Men’s Lightweight Double Sculls (LM2x)

The first Rowing World Cup indicated what a heavily contested event this is when many of last year’s World Rowing Championship finalists got pushed into the B Final. Most of them are back to take on current leader of the pack, Denmark. Mads Rasmussen and Rasmus Quist, reigning World Champions and winners of the first World Cup, had a full boat length lead at the end of their final. Great Britain’s new combination of Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter finished second. But the British duo could give the Danes more of a scare this time as Purchase and Hunter are only in their first season together and improving with every outing.

The potential is there for France to come back into the medals with the Czech Republic’s Vetesnik twins also a fast duo. Keep a look out for New Zealand also. Peter Taylor and Graham Oberlin-Brown are the reigning under 23 champions and come to the senior level with a winning spirit.

Men’s Lightweight Four (LM4-)

Zhongming Huang, Chongkui Wu, Lin Zhang and Jun Tian of China are the current World Champions and despite a faltering in the early rounds of the first Rowing World Cup, they came back to take the lead in the final. They are likely to be the biggest threat to this talented field, especially in the absence of the Italians.

A disappointing result last time for France will have definitely spurred them on along with Denmark who are still growing into their new line-up. Watch out for unexpected results from the Dutch. They have entered three crews which include a remixing of the crew that finished fourth at the first Rowing World Cup and who knows what the impact of the home-water advantage will have. Great Britain also showed their worth at the first World Cup and have remained in the same line-up to develop on their early June results.

Women’s Quadruple Sculls (W4x)

Great Britain as a nation has been coming along in leaps and bounds at their elite rowing level and a clear showing of this must be the three entries in this event. Leading the way is Britain’s flagship crew who are two-time World Champions and now winners of the first Rowing World Cup. The crew includes Katherine Grainger in stroke who is the most medalled woman rower for Great Britain. This crew looked relaxed in the lead when they won at Linz earlier this month leaving China to play chase down the course.

But watch out for the Germans. Germany has demanded ownership of this event before the British stepped up and they have reconfigured their quad to include rowing stalwart Kathrin Boron. The crew is being stroked by the talented 20-year-old Stephanie Schiller and, judging by their results in the double at the first Rowing World Cup, the Germans will be a force to be reckoned with.

Men’s Quadruple Sculls (M4x)

The tight finish between Germany and Italy at the first Rowing World Cup will not be repeated with these two countries absent from Amsterdam. This leaves no doubt that two-time reigning World Champions and 2006 World Rowing Male Crew of the Year, Poland, are likely to dominate. It will take a strong will and lots of perspiration to dent the armor of Konrad Wasielewski, Marek Kolbowicz, Michal Jelinski and Adam Korol.

Perhaps France, stroked by Julien Bahain, will step up to the plate. They took fifth at the first Rowing World Cup but were well down on the leaders, Poland. Perhaps Great Britain and Australia will step up. This race is wide open to a fresh medallist.

Women’s Eight (W8+)

Australia fell short of expectations at the first Rowing World Cup when they finished fifth but they can put this down to the heavy racing schedule which doubled the crew in some tough pairs racing. Young star Sally Kehoe was also out of action due to illness. With Kehoe back in action and only half of the eight racing in pairs, the Australians will be looking to show a clearer reflection of their boat speed. But winners of the first Rowing World Cup, Germany, are not going to let their World Cup leaders bib go without a fight.

Watch out also for the power of the home crowd pull. The Netherlands was delighted to finish third at the first Rowing World Cup but maybe not as delighted as silver medallists Great Britain. Both these crews will be back to take on the best eights rowing nations.

Men’s Eight (M8+)

Of the medallists at the first Rowing World Cup, third place finisher China is back. But they will be faced with some new competition. Australia always arrives with the attitude of coming first. Germany are the reigning World Champions and are racing at the World Cup for the first time this season and will definitely want to come first. Watch out also to the best of Great Britain’s sweep programme. World Champions from the four and first Rowing World Cup winners in the pair have united with two others to form an eight. What can these guys do in the larger boat?

This will be a battle of expectations versus fresh ideas.