European Rowing Champs attract 33 nations

The first edition of the newly reinstated European Rowing Championships will attract 33 nations according to entries which were submitted to the International Rowing Federation, FISA, up until Monday’s deadline. A total of 426 rowers in 148 boats have entered to race at this important regatta.

The women’s single will feature a strong international field with world silver medallist Rumyana Neykova from Bulgaria and the Czech single sculler Mirka Knapkova, 4th place at the World Champs two weeks ago. Also part of the field is Sweden’s Frida Svensson who was bronze medallist at the 2006 World Rowing Championships. Russian sculler Julia Levina will also race in Poznan next week in the single as will Under 23 bronze medallist from Hungary, Katalin Szabo.

Italy sends a big squad composed of some of their most successful international athletes: Elia Luini and Leonardo Pettinari, Italy’s successful Lightweight Men’s Double, have reunited and will attempt their first European title in Poznan. Italy’s squad also includes 2007 top ten athlete Daniele Gilardoni. Usually racing in the lightweight event, Gilardoni pairs up with Lorenzo Bertini, 2007 World Champs silver medalist in the lightweight men’s single, to try their luck in the European open double sculls.

Italy’s Men’s quad, fourth in Munich, come to the European Champs with three of the four rowers from their World Championship crew. Luca Ghezzi, Federico Gattinoni and Simone Raineri will attempt a seasonal grand finale with Simone Venier replacing Rossano Galtarossa in the lineup.

World Champions for 2005 in the lightweight men’s double sculls Zsolt Hirling and Tamas Varga from Hungary come to these European Championships to take on the Italians and Poland’s Robert Sycz and Tomasz Kucharski whose World Championship performance was shadowed by a health problem with Sycz.

In the eights, Romania send their flagship boat, the women’s eight, to take on the European title among a field of six boats including Germany, Great Britain, Belarus, Ukraine and the Netherlands. Ondrej Synek, the Czech star single sculler, silver medalist at this year’s World Rowing Championships joins Vaclav Chalupa and Milan Dolecek in a Czech men’s eight against six other crews.

The event will be held on Lake Malta in Poznan, Poland next week. The European Rowing Championships was re-established last May 2006, when 28 European national rowing federations elected a European Rowing management board consisting of three elected members from the federations and three members appointed by FISA, this way ensuring close cooperation and coordination. The board oversees the running of the event as well as the rules for the event. In total, 43 member federations are eligible to be part of the European Rowing Championships.

Full entry lists and schedule are available on www.worldrowing.com. A detailed race report will be available next week.