Entries announced for 2012 Samsung World Rowing Cup III Munich, Germany - 15 to 17 June

This regatta will attract the largest number of entries of the 2012 Samsung World Rowing Cup series, with nearly 700 athletes racing and 51 nations represented. This will be the final chance for crews to test themselves against their competition ahead of the Olympic Rowing Regatta beginning on 28 July.

Adaptive rowing events are also included in the schedule which will provide Paralympic athletes with the opportunity to assess their level of preparation internationally before the 2012 Paralympic Games begin on 31 August. Nearly 100 adaptive rowers will be competing on the Munich regatta course with heats on Thursday evening 14 June and A-finals on Saturday evening 16 June.

Germany will have the largest team (30 boats and 84 athletes), followed by Great Britain (23 boats and 66 athletes) and Australia (19 boats and 56 athletes).

The men's single sculls has the largest number of entries of all boat classes with an impressive line-up of 31 boats from 23 nations. Heading the field is five-time World Champion Mahe Drysdale from New Zealand. In the absence of 2010 World Champion Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic, Drysdale's main challengers will be Alan Campbell of Great Britain and Marcel Hacker of Germany. 

In the women's single sculls (24 entries), two-time Olympic Champion and six-time World Champion Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus is making her 2012 season debut in Munich and will face the winner of both initial stages of the 2012 Samsung World Rowing Cup series, Xiuyun Zhang of China. Azerbaijan's rising talent Nataliya Mustafayeva will likely be a podium contender, along with 2010 World Champion Frida Svensson who pulled out of Lucerne for medical reasons and two-time world medallist Emma Twigg of New Zealand.
 
The lightweight men's double sculls will have 18 boats fighting for medals. The new French duo of Jeremie Azou and Stany Delayre won gold in their first international race together in Lucerne.They will meet high-calibre crews including Olympic Champions Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter from Great Britain, New Zealand's 2009 World Champions Storm Uru and Peter Taylor, and Olympic bronze medallists Mads Rasmussen and Rasmus Quist from Denmark.

Another very tight field will be the men's double sculls with 16 entries. In Lucerne, the top three crews (2009 World Champions Germany, 2008 Olympic Champions Australia and Olympic and world medallists France) finished within less than one second of each other and, in the company of other very competitive crews such as Slovenia and New Zealand, will once again aim to be at the top in Munich.

In the women's pair, Great Britain's Helen Glover and Heather Stanning have scored two wins out of two in the Samsung World Rowing Cup series so far, and will be challenged by two-time World Champions Juliette Haigh and Rebecca Scown of New Zealand, who will seek to better their third-place finish in Lucerne. Comeback Olympic Champions from Romania, Georgeta Andrunache and Viorica Susanu, will also increase the intensity of the field as they are expected to peak again on time for the Olympic Games.

Romania is also back in the women's eight after finishing with silver in Belgrade and, in the absence of Olympic 

and World Champions from the USA, will do all it can to defend its legendary history in this boat class. They will face top contenders from Canada and the Netherlands, who took silver and bronze respectively in Lucerne. On the men's front, Germany's on-going winning streak in the eight will again be challenged by Great Britain and by the Netherlands, who took bronze in Belgrade. 

Great Britain is currently the top country on the World Rowing Cup medals table with a total of 135 points (79 from Belgrade and 56 from Lucerne). Germany follow with a total of 95 points and China with 59.