Rowers line up for the World Rowing Junior Championships and YOG qualification

Nearly 800 junior athletes under 19 years of age from 59 nations will be competing in the 13 junior boat classes over the five days of racing. Germany, Italy and the USA have entered the largest teams, with 13 crews and 49 athletes each. The boat classes attracting the highest number of entries are the junior men's single sculls with 36 nations entered and the junior women's single sculls with 28 entries.

This year's World Rowing Junior Championships will serve as the main opportunity for performance-based qualification for the 2014 Youth Olympic Games. The Games will be held in approximately one year's time from 16 to 28 August 2014 in Nanjing, China. A National Olympic Committee (NOC) may enter a maximum of one male and one female boat at the Youth Olympic Games. The boats with the following rankings at the 2013 World Rowing Junior Championships will directly qualify their NOC for the respective event:

• For the junior men's single sculls (JM1x): the top SIX places in the JM1x, the top FOUR places in the JM2x and the top ONE place in the JM4x;
• For the junior women's single sculls (JW1x): the top SIX places in the JW1x, the top FOUR places in the JW2x and the top ONE place in the JW4x;
• For the junior men's pair (JM2-): the top FIVE places in the JM2-, the top THREE places in the JM4- and the top ONE place in the JM8+;
• For the junior women's pair (JW2-) : the top FIVE places in the JW2-, the top THREE places in the JW4- and the top ONE place in the JW8+.

FISA will confirm the first group of qualification places to the Nanjing Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee (NYOGOC) on 30 August 2013. Continental qualification regattas will then take place in Tunis, Tunisia for Africa in October; in Samarkand, Uzbekistan for Asia also in October; and in Montevideo, Uruguay for Latin America next March to determine the final qualification places.

For rowers to be eligible to compete at the World Rowing Junior Championships, they must be 18 years of age or under. A rower can compete as a junior until 31 December of the year in which he or she reaches the age of 18; after that date the rower is classified as an under-23 rower.

Some participants from developing nations are able to attend the World Rowing Junior Championships through donations from participants at the World Rowing Masters Regatta (whose participants are all over the age of 27).

Live scoring, audio streaming, race reports, results and a photo gallery will be available throughout the junior championships on www.worldrowing.com.

A full list of entries and an updated provisional timetable can be found on the homepage of www.worldrowing.com.