Entries announced for World Rowing Cup series final

World Rowing Cup III will be raced on Lucerne’s Rotsee regatta course from 11-13 July 2014 with 20 different boat classes contested. Starting with heats on Friday 11 July, the men’s single sculls has the largest field of the regatta with 34 entries. Among these entries Olympic Champion, Mahe Drysdale (New Zealand) will go head-to-head with World Champion, Ondrej Synek (Czech Republic). Drysdale and Synek met for the first time this season at last month’s World Rowing Cup II and Drysdale managed to overtake Synek just near the finish. The friendly rivalry between these two exceptional scullers will continue on the Rotsee.

The women’s single sculls will likewise be hotly contested as World Champion, Kim Crow (Australia) faces World silver medallist, Emma Twigg (New Zealand) for the second time this season. Twigg currently leads the World Cup series, but Crow comes to Lucerne straight from a win at Amsterdam’s Holland Beker regatta.

After finishing first at World Rowing Cup II in Aiguebelette (FRA), Jeremie Azou and Stany Delayre of France have become the crew to beat in the lightweight men’s double sculls. Azou and Delayre will be up against 24 other entries which includes World Champions, Kristoffer Brun and Are Strandli of Norway.

The lightweight women’s double sculls features the unbeaten combination of Laura Milani and Elisabetta Sancassani of Italy. Milani and Sancassani are the current World Champions and their greatest challenge in this boat class is likely to be Great Britain’s duo of Olympic Champion Katherine Copeland and her new partner, Imogen Walsh.

After New Zealand’s lightweight men’s four dominated the final at the second World Rowing Cup last month in Aiguebelette, World Champions, Denmark will be back for revenge. Olympic medallists, Great Britain also have high expectations in this boat class.

Two exceptionally classy acts are dominating the women’s and men’s pairs race this season. The women’s pair has seen the return of the Olympic Champion British duo of Heather Stanning and Helen Glover. Stanning and Glover took an easy win at last month’s World Rowing Cup in Aiguebelette. In the men’s pair Hamish Bond and Eric Murray (New Zealand) continue to set new records as they go into their fifth consecutive year of unbeaten racing.

Germany is boating the biggest team with 24 entries spread over the 20 boat classes. They will be expecting good results in the men’s and women’s quadruple sculls and also in the men’s eight. Australia has the next biggest team with 22 entries. Australia currently leads the World Rowing Cup series.

Full entries can be found here. The World Rowing media centre includes a media guide for the event (online 7/7/2014), here.

Race reports, live results, live blogging, live race tracker and a photo gallery will be available on www.worldrowing.com throughout the regatta. There will be live video streaming of the A-finals on www.worldrowing.com.