Who to Watch in Munich

With Munich just hours away, here is your Who to Watch Guide for the first 2011 Samsung Rowing World Cup this season. World Rowing tells you which crews are gunning for gold, where the mighty battles lie, and the crews you should never underestimate.

Women’s Pair (W2-)

Never underestimate the benefit of home turf: Kerstin Hartmann and Marlene Sinnig of Germany will be hoping to make full use of this advantage. They were sixth at the 2010 World Rowing Championships and will be hoping to step up this year. Camelia Lupascu and Nicoleta Albu (Romania) finished a disappointing seventh last year in this boat class that has seen many Romanian combinations dominate. This year, they come into the event as the number two boat from their country, so a stiff challenge may confront them in the form of fellow Romanian rowers Roxana Cogianu and Ionelia Zaharia. 

Of the boats entered, the highest pollers have to be Helen Glover and Heather Stanning of Great Britain. Glover and Stanning came through their internal British selection process with flying colours and with a 2010 World Championship silver medal already in their possession.

Keep an eye out also for the United States. They are regularly strong in the pair and have mixed up their former World Champions, Susan Francia and Erin Cafaro, into competing boats.

Men’s Pair (M2-)

Last year this event turned into a two-boat head-to-head race between New Zealand and Great Britain. The Kiwis and the Brits managed to outclass the rest of their competitors with the New Zealanders holding the upper hand. But at Munich, New Zealand’s Eric Murray and Hamish Bond are absent, leaving the way clear for Andrew Triggs Hodge and Peter Reed. Hodge and Reed remain the top two sweep rowers in Great Britain and their coach, Juergen Grobler, has kept them in the pair with expectations of winning this season.

After Greece’s Tziallas and Christou finished third at the 2010 World Rowing Championships, they highlighted the growing strength of Greek rowing. Christou, however, is now paired up with Nikolaos Gkountoulas leaving a bit more to guesswork. They could be the most likely ones to challenge the Hodge-Reed duo.

The rest of the story here: worldrowing.com