2011 European Rowing Championships Entries Announced

The men's and women's single sculls are the best represented events with 17 and 15 nations competing respectively. Mindaugas Griskonis of Lithuania will be the one to beat in the men's single. Griskonis heads to Plovdiv after finishing seventh at the World Rowing Championships. His promising 2011 season indicates that he is likely to improve on his fourth place showing at last year's European Championships. The stiffest challenge for Griskonis is likely to come from Aleksandar Aleksandrov of Azerbaijan. Alexsandrov finished just behind Griskonis at the World Rowing Championships, in ninth place.

Recently crowned World Champion, Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic is lining up in the women's single and if her current form continues, Knapkova will be hard to beat. The very experienced Julia Levina of Russia is likely to challenge along with Donata Vistartaite of Lithuania.

The men's pair will see Italy and Greece face each other again. Italy's Niccolo Mornati and Lorenzo Carboncini just beat Greek twin brothers, Nikolaos and Apostolos Gkountoulas to the line at the World Rowing Championships where they finished third and fourth respectively. The calibre of these two boats indicates that they are likely to be holding their own race at the head of the field.

Spectators will be privileged to be able to see Christina Giazitzidou and Alexandra Tsiavou of Greece racing in the lightweight women's double. Giazitzitdou and Tsiavou won at the World Rowing Championships in dominating fashion and they are back racing in Plovdiv.

The lightweight men's double features Lorenzo Bertini and Elia Bertini of Italy who recently picked up a World Championship bronze. The Italians, however, will have strong competition coming from Portugal and Poland.

The European Rowing Championships is open to 43 European national rowing federations, including Israel. This event is held annually and is, this year, in its fifth year of reinstatement. The rowing programme includes all 14 Olympic boat class events. The Championships are managed by the European Rowing Management Board consisting of seven members, four elected by the national federations and three appointed by the FISA Council. A General Assembly of the member national federations is held each year at the Championships to attribute future events and discuss the rules and regulations of the events.

In 2010 the championships were held in Montemor-o-Velho, Portugal, where Germany finished as the overall best nation.

Race reports will be available on www.worldrowing.com. For full entries and schedules click here.

Sunday's A Finals shall be streamed through www.worldrowing.com.