42 NATIONAL ROWING TEAMS ENTERED FOR WORLD ROWING CUP II, VARESE, ITALY

Entries are in with 42 national rowing teams and over 750 rowers racing at the second stage of the 2015 World Rowing Cup to be held in Varese, Italy.

The men’s single sculls has the largest number of entries including a full field of the best in the world of single sculling. Olympic Champion Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand will make his first international appearance for 2015 and will, for the first time, face the winner of the European Rowing Championships Damir Martin of Croatia. In winning the European Championships, Martin beat World Champion Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic and Synek is back looking to reclaim the top spot. Also in the mix is the great Cuban sculler Angel Rodriguez Fournier, winner of the first World Cup in Bled and the current World Cup leader.

The Italian team is using Varese for their 2015 international debut. With 30 boats entered, Italy has the largest team at the regatta. Their prominent crew is the men’s double sculls featuring world silver medallists Romano Battisti and Francesco Fossi. They will face 2014 World Champions Valent and Martin Sinkovic of Croatia and European Champions Marcel Hacker and Stephan Krueger of Germany. Lightweight single sculling World Champion Marcello Miani is also a top medal contender for Italy.

The women’s double sculls will feature the new combination from New Zealand of Zoe Stevenson and Eve MacFarlane who will meet European Champions Magdalena Fularczyk and Natalia Madaj of Poland along with European bronze medallists Katherine Grainger and new partner Victoria Thornley of Great Britain.

World Rowing Championships
WRJC 2014 Hamburg
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Nineteen countries are racing in the lightweight women’s double sculls with European Champions from Great Britain Katherine Copeland and Charlotte Taylor leading the way. They will face the World Champions from New Zealand Julia Edward and Sophie MacKenzie as well as last year’s silver medallists Lindsay Jennerich and Patricia Obee of Canada.

Para-rowing races will take place in four boat classes with the para AS men’s single sculls attracting entries from 13 nations. This entry includes the current World Champion Erik Horrie of Australia. Horrie will face world silver and bronze medallists from last year Tom Aggar of Great Britain and Alexey Chuvashev of Russia.

Racing commences on the afternoon of 18 June 2015 with the para-rowing heats. It will then progress through repechages and semifinals with finals being held on 21 June starting at 11:00 CET. There will be a World Rowing television host production for the final races that can be viewed live on http://www.worldrowing.com throughout the world.

ROWING SEASON OFF TO A FAST START

The 2015 rowing season has started with World Rowing Cup I in Bled, Slovenia.

Tight racing resulted in the World Cup regatta points trophy being shared equally between China and Germany. Germany won four gold medals. These came in the blue riband men’s eight race as well as the men’s double sculls and men’s and women’s quadruple sculls. The men’s double sculls saw former single sculling champion Marcel Hacker team up successfully with Stephan Krueger to create a potentially winning new 2015 combination.

World Rowing Championships
WRJC 2014 Hamburg
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Scoring the most number of medals overall was China. The Chinese came to Bled with a large team and they won gold in both the lightweight women’s double sculls and the lightweight men’s pair. China won silver and bronze in the women’s pair after getting five of their six entered crews through to the final. But it was the Dutch pair of Olivia van Rooijen and Elisabeth Hogerwerf who earned the gold. China also took silver and bronze in the lightweight men’s four.

Belarus won two gold medals, one by 42-year-old Ekaterina Karsten in the women’s single sculls. The six-time Olympian Karsten was a last minute entry in the single after her doubles partner had to withdraw due to injury. Belarus was also successful with gold in the men’s four.

As well as the women’s pair, the Netherlands won a second gold medal in the lightweight men’s double sculls. Brothers Tycho and Vincent Muda kept the lead in a close race to the line which saw the silver and bronze medals decided by less than a second.

Poland picked up six medals overall to finish third on the points table. Poland’s medals included gold in the women’s double sculls following an impressive performance by Magdalena Fularczyk and Natalia Madaj.

Overall 20 nations earned World Cup points.

World Rowing Championships
WRJC 2014 Hamburg
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The W

World Rowing Championships
WRJC 2014 Hamburg
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from 29-31 May 2015.

The World Rowing Cup series was launched in 1997 and consists of a series of three events. The overall World Rowing Cup winners are determined after the third event. This year, the three stages of the series are Bled, Slovenia (9-10 May), Varese, Italy (18-21 June) and Lucerne, Switzerland (10-12 July).

Results, race reports, photos and videos are available on http://www.worldrowing.com.

ELMEC PARTNERS WITH WORLD ROWING TO FIND SUSTAINABLE IT SOLUTIONS

FISA, the World Rowing Federation, is proud to announce its new partnership with Elmec Informatica S.p.A. Based in Varese, Italy, the company is a provider of IT services and solutions.

Elmec has been a local partner of the last three World Rowing regattas staged in Varese: the 2014 World Rowing Under 23 Championships, the 2013 World Rowing Masters Regatta and the 2012 European Rowing Championships. The company has helped the organising committee reduce the environmental impact of each regatta.

“This new partnership both supports and complements FISA’s own environmental initiatives and on-going partnership for Clean Water with WWF, the World Wide Fund for Nature,” says FISA Executive Director Matt Smith.

Acting as World Rowing’s IT Partner, Elmec will assist FISA in the sustainable development, promotion and organisation of the sport of rowing on a local and global basis. This will be achieved through the provision of consultancy services and state-of-the-art video conferencing and other IT equipment to help improve the efficiency of long-distance communications with its local organising committees and executive team, and reduce FISA’s environmental footprint.

“Based in Varese, also the home of one of rowing’s most beautiful rowing lakes, we place great value on protecting our environment,” says Alessandro Ballerio, Partner of Elmec S.p.A. “Our mission is to help other enterprises do the same, so that whatever their industry or purpose, their own footprint is minimised. Through our partnership with World Rowing, we will help to improve the efficiency of their global communications and event management operations. Elmec is proud to be the Sustainable IT Partner of World Rowing.”

“We have come to know and appreciate the good work done by Elmec over three World Rowing regattas in Varese,” says Smith. “Elmec’s name and logo will be seen on televised banners at all our World Rowing regattas and together, we will prepare a ‘living’ case study to explain and show how their knowledge and experience can also help other sports to reduce their impact on the environment.”

2015 ROWING SEASON OPENS AT LAKE BLED, SLOVENIA

The World Rowing Federation, FISA, is pleased to announce the entries for the first regatta of the 2015 World Rowing Cup series to be held in Bled, Slovenia from 9-10 May 2015.

Competitors from 34 nations will race on the waters of Lake Bled, home of the 1966, 1979, 1989 and 2011 World Rowing Championships as well as many other international regattas. Nearly 200 competitors will race in a new, early season regatta format. The day before the World Rowing Cup regatta, athletes will be able to compete in the one-day, Bled International Regatta on 8 May, followed by two days of World Cup racing, culminating with finals on 10 May. The format will also see a progression system from heats directly to semi-finals, thus bypassing the repechage stage which is the usual feature of World Rowing regattas.

World Rowing Championships
WRJC 2014 Hamburg
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A full strength team from China will be in attendance with athletes racing in all of the 16 boat classes to be contested. Team China includes Wenyi Huang and Dandan Pan; bronze medallists from last year’s lightweight women’s double sculls. Also racing is Jingli Duan who finished third in the women’s single sculls at last year’s World Rowing Championships. Duan will come into Bled as a favourite in the women’s single with the added advantage of having raced on these waters during the 2011 World Rowing Championships.

The Czech Republic has entered in all but two boat classes with Olympic Champion in the women’s single scull, Mirka Knapkova leading the way. Knapkova will face China’s Duan in her first outing of the 2015 season.

Germany is sending a large team which includes a reshuffle of some of their big names in rowing. Former World Champion in the men’s single sculls, Marcel Hacker will be racing in the men’s double sculls with Stephan Krueger. Hacker and Krueger are also entered to race in opposing boats in the men’s quadruple sculls. The German women’s flagship crew, the women’s quadruple sculls will compete with one crew change from the 2014 winning boat.

Poland has entered 11 of the boat classes with Magdalena Fularczyk and Natalia Madaj likely to be leading the way for their nation. Fularczyk and Madaj were silver medallists at last year’s World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam. The Polish team will also be using this regatta to prepare for the European Rowing Championships to be hosted in the Polish city of Poznan at the end of May.

Back in the pair together, Olympic silver medallists Germain Chardin and Dorian Mortelette of France will face the very experienced Nikola Stojic of Serbia racing with his partner, Goran Jagar.

World Rowing Championships
WRJC 2014 Hamburg
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World Rowing Championships
WRJC 2014 Hamburg
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A full World Rowing Cup race-by-race preview will be available on http://www.worldrowing.com on Wednesday 6 May 2015.

Entries and the provisional race schedule are available today.

Entries for the Bled International Regatta: http://www.worldrowing.com/events/bled-international-regatta/documents
Entries for the World Rowing Cup I: http://www.worldrowing.com/events/2015-world-rowing-cup-i/documents

There will be a World Rowing television host production for the World Cup final races on Sunday 10 May. Sunday’s final races can be viewed live on http://www.worldrowing.com

The World Rowing Cup series was launched in 1997 and consists of a series of three events. The overall World Rowing Cup winners are determined after the third event. This year, the three stages of the series are Bled, Slovenia (9-10 May), Varese, Italy (18-21 June) and Lucerne, Switzerland (10-12 July).

A 23-NATION MEDAL SPREAD AT 2014 WORLD ROWING UNDER 23 CHAMPIONSHIPS

The 2014 World Rowing Under 23 Championships in Varese, Italy began with a large and enthusiastic field of 800 athletes and ended with the new 2014 under-23 World Champions being crowned. The performances showed why these are the best under-23 athletes in the world.

At the end of two days of finals gold medals were spread among 23 nations, with both New Zealand and the United States earning three golds each. For New Zealand they came in the lightweight women’s double sculls, men’s eight and women’s pair. The women’s pair of Grace Prendergast and Kerri Gowler completely dominated their final and set a new under-23 World Best Time – the only one set at this regatta.

The United States had gold medal success with Andrew Campbell in the lightweight men’s single sculls, the women’s eight and the women’s four. Campbell’s win saw him defend his 2013 title with the women’s eight also successfully defending their title.

The women’s single sculls had senior World Champion from the women’s double sculls, Milda Valciukaite of Lithuania, dominating her race and finishing just a fraction of a second outside of the under-23 World Best Time. Former junior, Sara Magnaghi of Italy, was the popular silver medallist with Germany’s Anne Beenken earning bronze.

Spain and Turkey both had medal success. Spain earned a gold medal in the lightweight men’s four, beating Great Britain and the 2013 under-23 World Champions, Italy, to the line while Turkey’s Enes Kusku earned silver in the lightweight men’s single sculls.

A number of these athletes will now join their nation’s senior team in preparation for the 2014 World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam (NED) at the end of August. These include Ilse Paulis of the Netherlands who won the lightweight women’s single sculls.

Overall New Zealand topped the medals table with a total count of six from the 21 boat classes. The United States was second with five total medals and Italy came through in third with seven medals, two of them gold.

The next World Rowing event will be the World Rowing Junior Championships to be held in Hamburg (GER) starting 6 August 2014.

To relive the World Rowing Under 23 Championships action visit http://www.worldrowing.com for full results, race reports and photos.

ENTRIES ANNOUNCED FOR 2014 WORLD ROWING UNDER 23 CHAMPIONSHIPS

The World Rowing Federation, FISA, has announced entries for the 2014 World Rowing Under 23 Championships to be held in Varese, Italy from 23-27 July 2014.

A large turnout of 800 of the best under-23 rowers in the world, covering 51 nations will race in Varese. The single sculling boat classes have attracted the biggest fields among both the men and the women. The men’s single has 30 scullers and the women’s has 22 scullers. The lightweight men’s single sculls also has a huge turnout of 25 entries, while the lightweight women’s single has 21 entries.

Boris Yotov of Azerbaijan and Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk of Poland will be hot contenders in the men’s single. They both medalled at the World Rowing Junior Championships last year and Yotov already has a silver medal from this year’s European Rowing Championships in the men’s double. The 2012 World Junior Champion Michal Plocek of the Czech Republic is back in the single after finishing second in the double at last year’s World Rowing Under-23 Championships.

The women’s single has 2013 World Rowing Junior Champion Jessica Leyden of Great Britain and World Junior silver medallist Tatsiana Klimovich of Belarus racing. Leyden and Klimovich will face the more senior Elza Gulbe of Latvia who was third last year in the single at the World Under-23 Championships.

The United States has become regular winners in the women’s eight and are the current World Under-23 Champions. Their line up this year, however, is completely new apart from one; Erin Boxberger. The United States will expect the strongest competition to come from Germany, Australia and Great Britain. For the men, New Zealand men’s eight is the reigning World Under-23 Champion and this crew remains the same as in 2013. Their main competition will come from the United States and Germany with last year’s bronze medallists, Poland likely to be strong.

Both Italy and Germany are sending complete teams of 21 boats. These two nations are strong in under-23 rowing and, at the event in 2013, Germany was on top in the medal table, followed by Italy and then the United States and Romania.

Varese, in northern Italy, is a popular rowing venue. A new regatta course and a new finish tower were installed for the 2012 European Rowing Championships and it is used by a number of international crews as a training base. Varese will host stages of the 2015 and 2016 World Rowing Cup series as well.

The World Rowing Under 23 Championships is raced in 21 boat classes and is open to all FISA member nations for athletes under the age of 23. The under-23s began in 1976 as the ‘Seniors Match’ and then became the ‘Nations Cup’. It became the World Rowing Under 23 Championships in 2005.

For entries, timetable, full reports, live audio streaming, live results and live blogging during the event go to: http://www.worldrowing.com.