Entries are in for the combined World Rowing Championships of senior, under-23 and junior rowers to take place at the Willem-Alexander Baan international regatta course in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The World Rowing Federation (FISA) has received entries for 1890 competitors coming from 70 countries. Joining the three regattas into one is a first for rowing. […]
Entries have now closed for the 2015 World Rowing Championships in Aiguebelette, France and FISA, the World Rowing Federation, is delighted to announce a record 1,300 athletes from 77 countries will be lining up to race at this year’s most prestigious rowing event.
The 2015 World Rowing Championships also acts as the main qualification regatta for the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games so athletes will not only be racing for World Championship titles, but also for the coveted 129 qualification spots for the Rio Olympics Games and the 24 spots for the Paralympic Games.
FISA President Jean-Christophe Rolland notes that the large number of entries is a reflection of the work that has gone into increasing rowing’s universality. “FISA has grown to 142 member federations and by the end of this year’s congress we will have at least 146,” says Rolland. “This growth internationally is reflected in the number of countries participating at the World Rowing Championships, and I am very pleased to welcome rowers from all corners of the globe and especially the newer rowing nations to Aiguebelette.”
“Having Olympic and Paralympic qualification spots available has also added to huge interest in this regatta,” says Rolland who won a gold medal in Aiguebelette in 1997, the last time the event was staged there.
The United States lead the way with the largest number of entries. They have entered boats in all 27 boat classes with the women’s eight their flagship crew. The US women’s eight has not lost a major race since 2006 with Canada being their nearest rival.
One of the largest fields is the men’s single sculls with 41 countries lining up. Two scullers, the reigning World Champion Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic and reigning Olympic Champion Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand, have been the front-runners in the single. Now Cuba’s Angel Fournier Rodriguez, bronze medallist last year, is a clear threat along with the return to the international stage of Alan Campbell from Great Britain.
The women’s single sculls sees 35 countries represented. Australia’s Kim Crow is the favourite in this boat class as she comes into the regatta following an unbeaten season. Crow’s main challenges will come from Olympic Champion Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic and Genevra Stone from the United States.
The lightweight men’s double sculls has attracted substantial interest especially for the home crowd. Jeremie Azou and Stany Delayre of France have dominated the 2015 season. But they will have to contend with current World Champions John Smith and James Thompson of South Africa as well as 2013 World Champions from Norway Kristoffer Brun and Are Strandli.
Winner of the 2015 World Rowing Cup series and the 2014 World Rowing Championship overall winner was New Zealand. They have entered 16 boats including entries in all of the Olympic boat classes.
Competition goes from 30 August to 6 September with racing spread across 27 boat classes comprising of 14 Olympic, eight International and five Para-rowing boat classes.
The 2015 World Rowing Cup III in Lucerne, Switzerland gave insight into crews that could perform well next month at the World Rowing Championships.
Medals were spread across 21 countries with New Zealand earning the top place on the medals table. The New Zealand team ended the regatta with 11 medals, six of them gold. The gold medal success included Sophie Mackenzie and Julia Edward in the lightweight women’s double sculls. The World Champion duo were silver medallists last month at World Rowing Cup II, but went one step better this time. Olympic Champion Mahe Drysdale won the men’s single sculls in commanding style over Mindaugas Griskonis of Lithuania. Olympic bronze medallist, Alan Campbell of Great Britain took third.
Hamish Bond and Eric Murray (NZL) recorded their 57th win at a World Rowing event. Bond and Murray finished first in the men’s pair ahead of Great Britain and Serbia. New Zealand showed strength in the women’s and men’s boat classes, finishing the day with medals in both the men’s and women’s eight.
Second on the medals table was Great Britain. The most consistent crew for the British this season has been Heather Stanning and Helen Glover. Stanning and Glover continued to be a class act in the women’s pair. The World Champion British men’s eight had a gold medal result when they held off Olympic Champions, Germany in the final sprint.
Germany showed dominance in the quadruple sculls by winning both the men’s and women’s race. Their two gold medals helped put them into third on the medals table just ahead of Australia in fourth. Australia also earned two golds. Kim Crow is the most successful rower currently on the Australian team. She has raced twice this season internationally, both times winning the women’s single scull by large margins. Taking the lesser medals behind Crow at Lucerne was Olympic Champion Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic and Genevra Stone of the United States. Australia’s second gold came in the men’s four. The four outraced Italy to finish first with Romania taking bronze.
Lucerne marked the final regatta of the World Rowing Cup series for 2015. At the conclusion of the series of three, New Zealand had the highest number of World Rowing Cup points with 117. Germany was just behind in second with 115 and Great Britain rounded out the top three with 107 points.
The next World Rowing regatta is the World Rowing Under 23 Championships. This takes place from 22-26 July 2015 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The World Rowing Championships will then take place from 30 August until 6 September 2015 in Aiguebelette, France. It is also the qualification regatta for the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
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 included Bled, Slovenia (9-10 May), Varese, Italy (18-21 June) and Lucerne, Switzerland (10-12 July).
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.
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.
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).
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