M4X

Entries: 18

Olympic qualifying places: 8

2018 Champions: Italy

Italy are the defending champions and they are back with the same line-up for 2019. Filippo Mondelli, Andrea Panizza, Luca Rambaldi and Giacomo Gentili not only won the world title last year, they also took gold at the Europeans. So far this season they’ve raced at the Regatta Internazionale Memorial Paolo d’Aloja in Piediluco and the European Championships in Lucerne. On both occasions they were comprehensively beaten by the Dutch. They will be anxious to reverse those results in Linz and mount a successful defence of their title.

The Netherlands crew that won in Piediluco and Lucerne are Dirk Uittenbogaard, Abe Wiersma, Tone Wieten and Koen Metesmakers. 5thin the world last year, 2019 has seen them step on from a 5thplace last season. Their win at the European Championships was their first title at a European or World championships in this boat class since 1989. They also raced at the 3rdWorld Cup on home water in Rotterdam where they were pushed down into bronze by Poland and Germany. A medal in Linz is a strong possibility for the Dutch

Germany have an extremely experienced crew with Rio Olympic champions Karl Schulze and Hans Gruhne on board (Schulze also won gold in this event in London). They are joined by Timo Piontek and Max Appel, they were both in the crew in 2017 that finished 8th. Last year’s German M4X struggled to find medal-winning speed, and only Gruhne remains from that crew. They’ve been getting better as the season progresses but are yet to find the middle of the podium. 4that the European’s they then took bronze in Poznan and silver in Rotterdam. The question is, can they go one better in Linz?

Poland dominated this event in the early 00’s winning gold at the Worlds and Olympics from 2005 to 2009. Since then however, the trophy cabinet has been empty. Their best result coming from the 2011 Worlds and the Rio Olympics where they finished 4thon both occasions. The 2019 crew however, will start as favourites to win their first M4X for a decade. Dominik Czaja, Wiktor Chabel, Szymon Posnik & Fabian Baranski won gold at both the 2ndand 3rdWorld Cups (with Chabel and Baranski also winning gold at the first World Cup along with Miroslaw Zietarski and Mateusz Biksup). In fact, the only blip for the Poles came at the European Championships when a crew of Czaja, Adam Wicenciak, Posnik and Biksup finished 7th. They will be confident heading into Linz thatthey can take gold.

Another country with strong hopes for a medal are Great Britain. Jonny Walton, Jack Beaumont, Angus Groom and Pete Lambert have shown they are capable of beating just about anyone, but they lack consistency, and their performances so far this season, bronze at the Europeans followed by a 5thand 6that the 2ndand 3rdWorld Cups have been a little below par. All four of these athletes raced at the Rio Olympics, with Beaumont, Groom and Lambert finishing 5thin the quad and Walton 5thin the M2X. Whilst the competition is very fierce, the British will want to demonstrate that they can mix it with the likes of the Poles, Italians and Germans and be serious contenders, not just for a medal, but for the gold.

Another crew who have struggled somewhat this season are Lithuania. They have three Olympians onboard, two of whom (Rolandas Mascinskas and Aurimas Adomavicius) won this title in 2017. 12thin 2018 was a big disappointment and for 2019 Mascinskas and Adomavicius are joined by Zygimantas Galisanskis and Dominykas Jancionis. Galisanskis raced in this boat back in 2015 and returned to international competition at the start of 2019 racing in the M1X at the first World Cup where he finished 25th. Jancionis was in the crew that finished 9that the Rio Olympics before moving to the M4- for the 2017 season. So far in 2019 the Lithuanians are yet to show medal-winning form, 11that the Europeans was followed by 7that the Poznan World Cup. They will need to have stepped on significantly for Linz or they may run the risk of missing out on a top 8 finish.

Australia have tweaked the line-up of the crew that finished 4that the Rotterdam World Cup last month. Joining Cam Girdlestone and David Watts from the crew that raced in Rotterdam, are Hamish Playfair and Campbell Watts. This latter duo raced in the M2X at the 2ndand 3rdWorld Cups finishing 5thand 6threspectively. Australia have a strong record in this event, silver medallists in Rio (in a crew which included Girdlestone) they won silver behind the Italians in 2018 (with both Campbell and David Watts on board). This new line-up certainly has the pedigree to be challenging for the medals and will definitely be in the mix.

No discussion of the M4X can be complete without talking about Norway, stroked by the legendary Olaf Tufte. He’s aiming to qualify for his 7thOlympic Games and with two golds, one silver and 2 bronze Olympic medals to his name he is genuinely one of the “superstars” of the sport. The 43-year-old is joined in the quad by Martin Helseth, Erik Solbakken and Jan Oscar Helvig. The Norwegians were 6thin this event in 2017 (with Nils Jakob Hoff stroking instead of Tufte who was racing the double with Kjetil Borch). Injury prevented the crew from racing as a quad at the 2018 World Championships, where Solbakken and Helvig raced the double to a 10thplace. They’ve made a reasonable start to their 2019 campaign. 5thplace at the Europeans was followed by a brief excursion into doubles for the 2ndWorld Cup, before returning to the quad for Rotterdam where they just missed out on an A-Final place and ended up winning the B-Final. Should Norway make the top 8 in Linz it will be one of the most popular results of the regatta and should, assuming he stays fit and healthy, see Tufte take his place on the start line for his 7thOlympic Games.

4thin the world last year were New Zealand. That year they had Mahe Drysdale on board, helping the crew of Nathan Flannery, Cameron Crampton and Lewis Hollows record New Zealand’s best ever result in the M4X at the World Championships. With Drysdale moving to the M8, his place is taken by Jordan Parry. 2019 is Parry’s 2nd season on the senior international circuit, but he has a strong pedigree in the quad having won gold and silver at U23 level in 2017 and 2016 respectively. He made his senior debut last year racing at the 2ndand 3rdWorld Cups (deputising for Drysdale). So far this season they have won bronze at the 2ndWorld Cup (their first World Cup medal since 2015) and followed that with an 8thplace in Rotterdam. As with the Norwegians, the Kiwis have the pedigree to qualify for Tokyo, but I’ve a feeling they will be in the scrap for the final two spots at the front end of the B-final.

One crew who will be expecting to qualify for Tokyo are Ukraine. They have the same line-up that won bronze last year, Dmytro Mikhay, Sergii Gryn, Olexandr Nadtoka and Ivan Dovdogko. The issue for the Ukrainians is one of consistency. Three of the crew won gold at the 2014 World Championships, setting the World Best Time in the process. But in 2015 they were 8th, 6thin Rio followed in 2016 and then 3rdlast year. So far this season the crew have race at the European Championships finishing 6th. For a crew with 7 Olympic appearances between them their inconsistency is very frustrating. They will need to be at their best to make the qualification standard.

China have benefitted from being based in Europe for the summer season (an innovation put in place by High Performance director Steve Redgrave). This means they’re one of the few countries that have raced at the full World Cup series. Their M4X is Xudi Yi, ha Zang, Dang Liu and Quan Zhang. They spent the first World Cup in doubles with the bow pair finishing 7thone place behind their stern pair. For Poznan they moved into the quad finishing 6th. In Rotterdam they finished 9th. An Olympic qualifying place in Linz will be a big challenge for the Chinese and they have an outside chance of a top 8.

Another crew with an outside chance of Olympic qualification are Russia. 10thin the world last year they also finished 10that the European championships this year. Rotterdam saw the crew of Vadislav Rybacev, Artem Kosov, Nikolay Pimenov and Pavel Sorin produce a much stronger performance taking 5th.

The final crews to briefly mention are Estonia, 3rdin the world in 2017 but have been B-Final finishers since then, Moldova, silver medallists at the first World Cup and 7that the U23 Worlds this year. Belarus’s crew includes Stanislau Shcharbachenia and Dzianias Mihal who are doubling-up in the M2X, and the USA who were 8thin Poznan.

My picks….Germany in gold, Poland in silver and (I hope) Great Britain in bronze.

Predicted Olympic qualifiers: GER, POL, GBR, NED, ITA, AUS, NOR, LTU

W4x

Entries 12

Olympic qualifying places: 8

2018 Champions: Poland

Statistically speaking the W4X is the easiest boat class to qualify for Tokyo with 12 crews chasing 8 places. But, the quality of the field gunning for those 8 places is incredibly high and almost all of the twelve crews are in with a shout.

China have been the dominant force so far this season The crew of Yunxia Chen, Ling Zhang, Yang Lyu and Xiatong Cui were winners at both the first and 2ndWorld Cups and also took the Princess Grace Challenge Cup ay Henley. All bar Chen were in this crew at last year’s World Championships where they finished 4th. The Chinese haven’t won this event since 1993 and haven’t been among the medals since 2014. But, under the guidance of coach Paul Thompson, this year’s Chinese boat will be going into the World Championships as the ones to beat.

Last year’s World Champions, Poland, are back to try and defend their title. 2019 sees them with the same line-up that won the title in Plovdiv, Agnieszka Kobus-Zawojska, Marta Wieliczko, Maria Springwald and Katarzyna Zillmann. This quartet also raced together in 2017 taking the silver medal. Kobus-Zawojska and Springwald were in the bronze medal Olympic crew from Rio and Wieliczko and Zillmann won gold that year at the U23 World Championships. This season they had, for them, a slow start, finishing 4that the European Championships and they were runners-up to the Chinese at the Poznan World Cup and the Germans in Rotterdam.

Germany used to dominate this event (in one guise or another) winning 16 World Championship titles between 1985 and 2014. Their record at Olympic level is even better, having won every Olympic title except in Beijing and London. For 2019 they’ve kept two of the crew that won a silver medal last season, Franziska Kampmann and Freida Haemmerling. They are joined by Daniela Schultze (who raced in this crew at the 2017 World Championships) and Michaela Stahlberg (10thin the W2X last year). So far this season they have a gold medal from the European Championships and a bronze from Poznan (with Carlotta Nwadjie instead of Schultze). They then took gold at the final World Cup in Rotterdam, and come into Linz on a high that they can take their first World title since 2014.

The Netherlands have a strong record in this boat class over the last few years. Silver medallists in Rio, they won the world title in 2017 (their first in this event). 2018 saw them win the European title and then bronze at the World Championships. Linz sees the full world championship-winning crew from 2017 reunited, Olivia van Rooijen, Inge Janssen, Sophie Souwer and Nicole Beukers. So far this season the Dutch have been racing with Mieke Wilms in the stroke seat and they’ve had a run of silver medals at both the first and 2ndWorld Cups and the European Championships. By their own high standards their performance in Rotterdam, where they came 5th, was something of a disappointment. It remains to be seen if the reintroduction of Beukers to the stroke seat will get them back among the medals.

Australia haven’t won this event since 2003, and haven’t won a medal since 2006. They have a new crew for 2019 with just one returner from the 2017 and 2018 crews, Rowena Meredith. She’s joined by Katrina Bateman, making her return to international competition for the first time in 4 years, and Fiona Ewing and Cara Grzeskowiak, both of whom make their senior international debuts having last raced for Australia at the 2016 U23 World Championships. They’ve made a strong start to their 2019 campaign, finishing 4thin Poznan and then taking the bronze medal at the Rotterdam World Cup.

Great Britain won 4 out of 5 World titles between 2005 and 2010. Since then they have been struggling to establish a truly world class crew. But, slowly, they’ve been developing a strong unit, and after the disappointment of not qualifying for the Rio Olympics then bounced back with a bronze medal at the 2017 World Championships (the first medal in this event since gold in 2010). They finished 5thin 2018 with a crew of Jess Leyden, Holly Hill, Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne and Zoe Lee. For 2019 Lee has moved back into the W8 (where she’d won an Olympic silver medal in Rio), and in her pace has come the younger Hodgkins-Byrne sister, Charlotte. She’s an outstanding young talent having won the U23 World Championships in the BW2X last year and then finished 4that the senior World Championships. Now in the quad they’ve made a solid start to 2019, 5that the European Championships was followed by 4that the Rotterdam World Cup. A medal may be just out of their reach in Linz, but they should comfortably qualify for Tokyo.

The USA won their one and only World title in this boat class in 2015. Their crew for Linz includes Lauren Schmetterling at bow. She was Olympic W8 champion in from Rio and she also has world championship gold medals from the W8 from 2013, 2014 and 2015. She’s joined by Sophia Vitas at 2, Emily Huelskamp at 3 and Kathryn Roach at stroke. Huelskamp was world champion in the W4- back in 2013 and is the only member of the 2018 W4X remaining. This crew haven’t raced at any of the 2019 World Cups so will be something of an unknown quantity, but the USA seldom produce slow women’s crews, so they will definitely be ones to watch.

The final crew to mention are the young Romanians. Larisa Elena Rosu, Elena Logofatu, Nicoleta Pascanu and Tabita Maftei. They all made their senior international debuts this season, finishing 6that the European Championships. They then went on to race at the U23 World Championships where they picked up a bronze medal. They will be in a battle to secure the final qualifying place against the likes of New Zealand, Italy, France and Russia.

My picks…Germany in gold with the Chinese in silver and the Polish in bronze.

Predicted Olympic qualifiers: GER, CHN, POL, GBR, AUS, NED, USA, ROU