2009 European Rowing Championships in Brest, Belarus

A total of 31 nations have entered this regatta which will take place at the beautiful new international regatta course in Brest, Belarus. This is the training site of the two-time Olympic Champion and six-time World Champion single sculler Ekaterina Karsten. Karsten is looking forward to racing in front of her home crowd. She leads the list in the women's single.

The regatta is the final event in the busy European rowing season and, despite post-World Championship down-time, many of the world's top rowers, and several fresh World Champions will be racing in Brest. The lightweight women's double sculls include the gold and silver medallists from this year's World Rowing Championships. Greece's Christina Giazitzidou and Alexandra Tsiavou will again meet Magdalena Kemnitz and Agnieszka Renc of Poland for a race that is sure to be intense.

Germany's World Champion lightweight men's four is back together in Brest. The twin/brother combination of Matthias and Jost Schoemann-Finck and Jochen and Martin Kuehner proved that siblings can create magic when put in a boat together. The current World Champions in the women's quadruple sculls, Ukraine, continue their successful season at the European Championships.

France's world silver medallist in the lightweight men's double, Frédéric Dufour will come to Brest as a single sculler in the open event. Dufour will try his strength against a field of 18 other contenders for the European title including former junior champion, Aleksandar Aleksandrov of Bulgaria and Olympian Mindaugas Griskonis of Lithuania.
The largest entry is from host country Belarus, who are taking advantage of this big international event on home water to bring out 48 of their athletes before the start of winter training. 

The revival of the European Rowing Championships took place in May 2006 after a vote by the European member national rowing federations. The event was originally started by FISA in 1893 and was staged annually through to 1973 when it was discontinued. It was re-started as a means to better promote the sport in Europe and offer more competition opportunities for European rowers. It is managed by the European Rowing Management Board consisting of seven members, four elected and three appointed. 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 total, 43 member federations are eligible to be part of the European Rowing Championships.
Entries and timetable are available here. During the event, full reports, live audio streaming, live results and features shall be available on www.worldrowing.com. 

The event A-finals will be video streamed live on Sunday 20 September and can be accessed through the www.worldrowing.com website.

For more information – FISA media contact:

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