South African rowers will begin their international encounter at the first World Rowing Cup of the 2016 season in Varese tomorrow, Friday 15 April.

This hails the beginning of the all-important Olympic build-up. Rowers of 47 countries will be competing and it will give coaches a good indication of how their rowers are positioned.

The following Tuks/HPC-based South African crews will be participating:  men’s lightweight double sculls (James Thompson and John Smith); women’s lightweight double sculls (Kirsten McCann and Ursula Grobler); men’s pair (Shaun Keeling and Lawrence Brittain); women’s pair (Lee-Ann Persse and Kate Christowitz) and men’s fours (David Hunt, Jonty Smith, Vince Breet and Jake Green).

Except for the men’s fours, all these crews have already qualified for the Olympic Games in Rio. Roger Barrow, national head coach, made it clear that the crews that are competing at the World Cup will not necessarily be going to Rio. He is still testing different combinations. The men’s fours will get an opportunity to qualify for the Games at the end of May.

On the International Rowing Federation’s website it was reported that the men’s lightweight category has attracted a field of 19 boats for Varese World Cup. 

It will be interesting to see how the Olympic Champions, Mads Rasmussen and Rasmus Quist of Denmark, stack up against the other crews. The duo took time off from rowing after the London Olympics and last year they failed to qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Rasmussen and Quist will be hoping to qualify through the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in May and Varese will act as a warm-up for them. 

South Africa’s 2014 World Champions (Thompson and Smith) are tipped as one of the crews to watch.  
“Things are going well.  This being the first international race of the season, it is still early days.  Many top crews are not racing yet. From last year's A-final at the World Championships only Italy is here,” said Thompson (Tuks/HPC).

As to their chances to podium Thompson said: “We are coming out of a big block of training but have done no racing in the double. So we will see how things work out in the early rounds of the competition and take it from there. This will be mainly a great opportunity to see how the results of that big block of summer training will work out.

“This is the first time that we will be competing in this World Cup. The course looks good and if we get the correct wind on Sunday it could be fairly fast.”
It is reported that the lightweight women’s double sculls will probably be one of the most competitive races at Varese. 
The 2015 world bronze medallists from South Africa, Kirsten McCann and Ursula Grobler (Tuks/HPC), as well as the fourth-placed Canadian duo of Lindsay Jennerich and Patricia Obee, are likely to be positioned as frontrunners. Both of these crews have qualified for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and Varese will give them a chance to see how their off-season training will position them.
Also qualified for Rio is the Irish combination of Sinead Jennings and Claire Lambe. 

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