Crews announced for 2009 World Rowing Championships

The three stages of the 2009 Rowing World Cup series leading up to this year's World Rowing Championships have given the rowing community a glimpse at potential performances. Germany and the United States only just finalised their crews and Australia have stayed home choosing not to appear at any other Spring regattas this season. 

This adds to the uncertainty that will unfold over the week that leads up to the A finals. An event that will have particular interest is the men's quadruple sculls. Poland are the reigning World and Olympic Champions and want to perform at their best in their home country. But this season Poland were beaten by a young Croatian crew. Germany's quad are also on top of their game. They have added the colourful single sculler Marcel Hacker to the mix and they have been posting fast times.

The women's eight never fails to excite and when the 2008 Olympic champion United States were beaten by perennial rivals Romania at the final stage of the Rowing World Cup, this would have fuelled the American fires to come back stronger in the event they love to win.

The big names from the 2008 Beijing Olympics are all going to be there in the men's single. Reigning World Champion Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand is unbeaten this season but he freely admits that Olympic champion Tufte (NOR), Campbell (GBR) and Olympic bronze medallist Synek (CZE) are constantly putting him under pressure. These rowers know how to give it all on the water and Drysdale knows that Olaf Tufte is the king of getting it right when it counts.

Rowing prides itself in the colourful characters that make up the sport from both newcomers to stalwarts. At Poznan the indomitable Estonian Jueri Jaanson, 43, is racing in the men's single sculls. Vaclav Chalupa, 41, of the Czech Republic is also competing at the better end of the men's pair. At the other end of the age spectrum, Denmark's Henrik Stephansen, 21, is the fastest lightweight on the indoor rowing machine in the world and he will compete in the lightweight men's double sculls. Stephansen will be up against France's 20 year old Jeremie Azou who has already medalled this season.

Entries, timetable , full reports, live audio streaming, live results and features are available on www.worldrowing.com .

The event semifinals and A Finals will be video streamed live from Thursday 27 to Sunday 30 and can be accessed through the www.worldrowing.com website.

On-site FISA Media Officer and Website Editor:
Debora Feutren, Publications and Website Editor
mobile: +41 79 793 56 00
E-mail: debora.feutren@fisa.org