World Rowing Under 23 Championships – 51 countries and over 800 rowers

For immediate release
Lausanne, 15 July 2015

The World Rowing Federation, FISA, has announced entries for the 2015 World Rowing Under 23 Championships to be held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria from 22 to 26 July.

A large turnout of 820 of the best under-23 rowers in the world, from 51 nations will race in Plovdiv on what many consider to be the fastest course in the world. In this pre-Olympic year, the lightweight men’s double attracted the most entries with 28 boats entered.  The men’s single also attracted a large entry with 25 crews. The lightweight women’s single and the lightweight women’s double have 19 and 18 boats entered respectively.

The massive field of lightweight men’s doubles has many new names with only one returning crew from last year’s A-final; Martin Slavik and Jiri Simanek from the Czech Republic. They will go up against the rest of the relatively unknown 28 boat field.

The competition in the women’s lightweight double will be tough as 2014 gold medallist Zoe McBride and her new partner Jackie Kiddle are entered again. McBride set the new World Best Time at the 2015 World Rowing Cup II in Varese, Italy and has paired up with Kiddle, who was also an A-finalist at the 2015 World Rowing Cups II and III. They will go up against the 2014 silver medallists from Romania who are back with the same line-up and the 4^th place finishers from Switzerland.

The men’s single sculls will have the return of 2014 under 23 silver medallist Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk of Poland. He will likely be challenged by Jack Beaumont from Great Britain who medalled earlier this year at the European Championships in the men’s quadruple sculls.

The United States has dominated the women’s eight in recent years and returns with half of their gold medal winning crew from 2014. They will expect strong competition from Germany and Great Britain. With the absence of both New Zealand and Australia in the men’s eight, the USA might be able to step up their 3^rd place finish from last year. But A-finalists from 2014 Germany, Italy and Great Britain will provide stiff competition.

Germany is the only nation to send a complete team of 21 boats. The United States is sending the next largest team with 20 boats competing. The United States finished second on the medals table in 2014, just behind New Zealand.

The regatta course in Plovdiv is a man-made canal stretching 2300 metres along the Maritza River in the centre of the city. The course is framed by forest that provides natural shelter. It will also host the 2018 World Rowing Championships.

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: www.worldrowing.com.

For the complete entry list, click here.