World Rowing Cup series final returns to Lucerne

For immediate release
Lausanne, 1 July 2015

Rowers from 45 nations are set to contest the third and final stage of the 2015 World Rowing Cup series in Lucerne, Switzerland.

This represents the highest number of national federations participating at World Cup regattas this season and is a reflection of teams moving towards finalising their line-ups for this year’s World Rowing Championships.

The lightweight men’s double sculls has the most entries at 26 with the reigning World Champions South Africa racing for the first time this season. James Thompson and John Smith will face World Cup leaders Jeremie Azou and Stany Delayre of France. The South Africans hold the World Best Time while Azou and Delayre recently set a new World Cup Best Time.

A large field has entered in the women’s single sculls and leading the way will be Australia’s Kim Crow. Crow won last month at World Rowing Cup II and this time she will race against Olympic Champion Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic. On the men’s single sculls side, the battle of the best will continue between Olympic Champion Mahe Drysdale from New Zealand and World Champion Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic. Belarus’s Stanislau Shcharbachenia is also racing and after beating Synek at World Rowing Cup II, Shcharbachenia is a sculler to watch along with Croatia’s Damir Martin.

Racing for the first time internationally this season are the World and Olympic Champions of the men’s pair Eric Murray and Hamish Bond. The duo’s strongest competition is likely to come from World Cup II winners Roel Braas and Mitchel Steenman of the Netherlands and World Cup I winners Germain Chardin and Dorian Mortelette of France.

Current World Cup leaders Germany has sent one of the largest teams with 22 crews entered. This includes their World Champion women’s quadruple sculls and European Champions in the men’s double sculls Marcel Hacker and Stephan Krueger. Also entered with 22 crews is Italy. They anticipate medals in the lightweight men’s double and open men’s double sculls. Last year’s top nation New Zealand has entered 21 crews and Great Britain has entered 19.

World Rowing Cup III will be raced on Lucerne’s Rotsee regatta course from 10-12 July 2015 with 18 boat classes to be contested. Racing starts at 9:00 CET on Friday 10 July.

The official hashtag for the event is #WRCLucerne. World Rowing will provide updates and short commentary via Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @WorldRowingOfficial. The official Twitter account of World Rowing is @WorldRowing.

Full entries and provisional timetable can be found at www.worldrowing.com. The World Rowing Cup III media guide can be found at: http://www.worldrowing.com/mediacenter/ (online from 3/7/15).