PRESS RELEASE: Entries announced for 2012 Samsung World Rowing Cup II

More than 550 athletes hailing from 45 countries will compete on Lucerne’s Rotsee, a natural lake renowned amongst elite rowers worldwide. The majority of these crews will race later this year at the London 2012 Olympic Games creating intense high-level racing and providing the rowers with a way to measure their competition in the lead up to the Games.

Often the men’s single sculls event attracts the largest number of entries and this will be the case again at the World Cup in Lucerne with 30 rowers entered from 23 nations. An event that in recent years has shown an ever-increasing calibre, the men’s single sees the arrival of five-time World Champion, Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand, to his first international race this season. Drysdale will face regular rivals, including his toughest opponent 2011 World Champion Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic, and regular medallist Alan Campbell of Great Britain.

In the women’s single sculls, two-time Olympic Champion and six-time World Champion Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus is making her 2012 season debut in Lucerne and will face 2011 World Champion Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic as well as winner of the first stage of the 2012 Samsung World Rowing Cup series, Xiuyun Zhang of China. Karsten is number one on the current list of Top 10 active women rowers, but recently her younger competitors have provided strong challenges.

The top three boats from 2011 are all racing in the men’s pair – New Zealand, Greece and Italy. Current World Champions Hamish Bond and Eric Murray of New Zealand will face a new combination from Germany with Felix Drahotta and Anton Braun. Drahotta and Braun had a stunning win at the first  Samsung World Rowing Cup in Belgrade while Great Britain’s new-look crew of George Nash and William Satch took second.

Of the 14 Olympic events racing in Lucerne, the men’s double sculls is shaping up to be one of the toughest events to qualify for the A-final. Two-time World Champions Joseph Sullivan and Nathan Cohen (NZL) as well as Olympic Champions Scott Brennan and David Crawshay (AUS) are racing for the first time internationally this season at Lucerne and will have to contend with winners from the first Samsung World Rowing Cup, Eric Knittel and Stephan Krueger of Germany, as well as Great Britain’s new combination of Bill Lucas and Sam Townsend – silver medallists in Belgrade.

Great Britain is currently the top country on the 2012 Samsung World Rowing Cup medals table after winning 12 medals in the 14 Olympic events in Belgrade, Serbia. They will take a large squad of 18 boats to Lucerne. Germany, currently in second place on the medals table, has the largest contingent with 23 boats.

The World Rowing Cup series was launched in 1997 and includes all 14 Olympic boat classes. The overall World Rowing Cup winners are determined after a series of three regattas. This year, the three stages of the series include Belgrade, Serbia (4 – 6 May), Lucerne, Switzerland (25 – 27 May), and the final in Munich, Germany (15 – 17 June).

A full Samsung World Rowing Cup event by event preview will be available on www.worldrowing.com on Thursday 24 May.

Entries and the provisional timetable are available on the homepage of www.worldrowing.com. Click here for direct access.

The World Cup finals will be video-streamed live on Sunday 27 May. You will find direct links to the video streaming platforms at www.worldrowing.com/video.

During the regatta, race reports, live results and a dedicated photo gallery will be provided on www.worldrowing.com.

For late media accreditation requests, please contact FISA Communications Manager at debora.feutren@fisa.org.