One month to Sydney's Samsung World Rowing Cup

The venue is the renowned Sydney International Regatta Centre in Penrith (home of the Sydney 2000 Olympic rowing regatta), and racing will go for three days from 21 – 23 March, 2013.

Final entries are due by 11 March and already many countries have expressed interest and have been booking accommodation.  Both the United States and Australia recently announced their team for Sydney. Australia, as expected, is fielding a large 19-crew team – including two boats in some events. This comprises of 17 athletes that raced at the London Olympic Games. A number of the remaining athletes are new to the Australian national team as coaches look at long-term plans of building the team towards the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

Australia’s two-time London Olympic medallist Kim Crow will be racing in the women’s single sculls. Crow was one of the first London Olympians from Australia to commit to continuing on in rowing at the elite level and so has been back in training since about one month after the Olympics. Also continuing on from London are five members of the Australian women’s eight including coxswain Lizzy Partick. They will form the base of the World Cup eight which has already shown promising speed during time trials.

The United States is sending a team of 22 athletes. Over half of these were members of the London Olympic team and six of them raced in the gold medal women’s eight including Susan Francia, Caroline Lind, Esther Lofgren, Meghan Musnicki and Taylor Ritzel.

A large team is predicted to be coming from Australia’s neighbours, New Zealand. New Zealand rowers are currently competing in their national rowing championships and thus the team announcement is yet to be made.

Sydney World Cup organisers are anticipating that about 20 nations will participate including athletes expected from Great Britain, Germany, France, Estonia, China and Portugal.

Athletes coming ‘down under’ from European countries may need time to acclimatise as forecasts for March weather in Sydney indicate that sunny days with temperatures in the mid-20s (degrees Celsius) are to be expected.  

Leading up to the Samsung World Rowing Cup is a week-long rowing festival. This includes the Australian Open Rowing Championships, the Australian Open Schools Championships and the King’s and Queen’s Cup interstate regatta. Over the space of the festival there will be about 2,000 competitors and more than 600 races making it the biggest rowing event in the Asia Pacific region in recent years.

Live footage from the finals at the World Cup will be streamed live on the World Rowing website on 23 March. Stay tuned for more details!