Entries are in with 42 national rowing teams and over 750 rowers racing at the second stage of the 2015 World Rowing Cup to be held in Varese, Italy.

The men’s single sculls has the largest number of entries including a full field of the best in the world of single sculling. Olympic Champion Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand will make his first international appearance for 2015 and will, for the first time, face the winner of the European Rowing Championships Damir Martin of Croatia. In winning the European Championships, Martin beat World Champion Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic and Synek is back looking to reclaim the top spot. Also in the mix is the great Cuban sculler Angel Rodriguez Fournier, winner of the first World Cup in Bled and the current World Cup leader.

The Italian team is using Varese for their 2015 international debut. With 30 boats entered, Italy has the largest team at the regatta. Their prominent crew is the men’s double sculls featuring world silver medallists Romano Battisti and Francesco Fossi. They will face 2014 World Champions Valent and Martin Sinkovic of Croatia and European Champions Marcel Hacker and Stephan Krueger of Germany. Lightweight single sculling World Champion Marcello Miani is also a top medal contender for Italy.

The women’s double sculls will feature the new combination from New Zealand of Zoe Stevenson and Eve MacFarlane who will meet European Champions Magdalena Fularczyk and Natalia Madaj of Poland along with European bronze medallists Katherine Grainger and new partner Victoria Thornley of Great Britain.

Nineteen countries are racing in the lightweight women’s double sculls with European Champions from Great Britain Katherine Copeland and Charlotte Taylor leading the way. They will face the World Champions from New Zealand Julia Edward and Sophie MacKenzie as well as last year’s silver medallists Lindsay Jennerich and Patricia Obee of Canada.

Para-rowing races will take place in four boat classes with the para AS men’s single sculls attracting entries from 13 nations. This entry includes the current World Champion Erik Horrie of Australia. Horrie will face world silver and bronze medallists from last year Tom Aggar of Great Britain and Alexey Chuvashev of Russia.

Racing commences on the afternoon of 18 June 2015 with the para-rowing heats. It will then progress through repechages and semifinals with finals being held on 21 June starting at 11:00 CET. There will be a World Rowing television host production for the final races that can be viewed live on www.worldrowing.com throughout the world.

Entries and provisional timetable can be found at www.worldrowing.com. The World Rowing media guide will be online (from 15 June 2015): http://www.worldrowing.com/mediacenter/

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 all A-finals on www.worldrowing.com.

The World Rowing Cup series was launched in 1997 and consists of a series of three events. The overall World Rowing Cup winners are determined after the third event. This year, the three stages of the series are Bled, Slovenia (9-10 May), Varese, Italy (18-21 June) and Lucerne, Switzerland (10-12 July).

Wenyi Huang (CHN)

42 National rowing teams entered for World Rowing Cup II, Varese, (ITA)

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