37 Nations to compete in Munich

Munich will attract some of the hard hitters of the rowing world. Germany is entered en mass and hoping to start the new Olympic cycle with a clean slate following a disappointing Beijing Olympics. In front of their home crowd and with a new head coach Hartmut Buschbacher,the German team are likely to get a good start to their London 2012 campaign. China is using the power of numbers. They have brought a huge group of provincial teams which displays their best provincial rowers along with known international athletes. The team includes 36 athletes entered in the eights alone.

Many of rowing’s top single scullers have decided to put their solo ways to one side and join the team. Belgium’s Tim Maeyens is set to row the double as is Switzerland’s best single sculler, Andre Vonarburg. Germany’s top single sculler, Marcel Hacker of Germany is trying something he hasn’t done for the last decade, race in a quad. Slovenia’s top two scullers, Iztok Cop and Luka Spik are also joining bigger boats. They are racing against each other in competing quads. Olympic Champion in the women’s single, Rumyana Neykova has gone back to the double that she rowed in four years ago.

After Great Britain’s runaway success at the first Rowing World Cup last month, the team is back, pretty much the same, and undoubtedly with a whole load of winner’s confidence. But the stakes are higher in Munich and the turnout bigger, giving the British a whole new set of challenges. Several crews from Russia will also participate in Munich despite the late reception of their entry. This makes 37 member federations participating.

The Munich regatta also marks the first world meeting of Adaptive rowing with many of those rowers aiming to participate at the 2012 Paralympic Games. Ten countries will compete in the four Paralympic disciplines, including a men’s single sculler from New Zealand, the country’s first venture into adaptive rowing.

A full Rowing World Cup event by event preview will be available on www.worldrowing.com from Wednesday 17 June.

Entries and race schedules are available here.

The event finals will be video streamed live on Sunday 21 June and can be accessed through the www.worldrowing.com website.

The Rowing World Cup series was launched in 1997, and includes all 14 Olympic boat classes. The overall Rowing World Cup winners are determined after a series of three regattas. Germany has dominated the series since its beginning ten years ago. This year, the three stages of the series are held in Banyoles, Spain (29-31 May), Munich, Germany (19-21 June); and the final in Lucerne, Switzerland (10-12 July).

Visit the official website of the International Rowing Federation and the Rowing World Cup www.worldrowing.com, for a full list of entries, a racing timetable as well as an extensive boat class preview. During racing, this website will provide live scoring, interviews, photographs, press releases, start lists and full results.

Media accreditation can be requested from the media centre page of www.worldrowing.com.