World Rowing Cup series concludes the road to Tokyo

The World Rowing Cup series for 2021 concludes next weekend with World Rowing Cup III going to the coastal town of Sabaudia, just south of Rome, Italy.

Racing takes place from 4 to 6 June 2021 with over 300 athletes from 24 nations competing. Italy is out in full force with more than one boat entered in the majority of boat classes.

Recently qualified for the Tokyo Olympic Games, the women’s pair of Hedvig Rasmussen and 2012 Olympic silver medallist Fie Udby Erichsen of Denmark are continuing their Olympic preparation. Competing in Sabaudia will give an indication to their competitors of their potential boat speed as Erichsen is only recently in the pair, after spending her career in the single sculls.

The 2016 Olympic champions in the double sculls, the Sinkovic brothers are back racing in the men’s pair. Their win at World Cup I in Zagreb ignited the home crowd and set them one step closer to Olympic success. In Sabaudia, Valent and Martin Sinkovic will go up against the identical twins from France, the Turlan brothers who recently raced the A-final at World Rowing Cup II.

After winning at World Rowing Cup II, Oliver Zeidler of Germany continues his season in the men’s single sculls. With 23 entries Zeidler will have stiff competition from World Cup II silver and bronze medallists, Sverri Nielsen of Denmark and 2018 World Champion Kjetil Borch of Norway. Croatia’s 2016 Olympic silver medallist, Damir Martin is also lining up.

Both the men’s and women’s quadruple sculls have an impressive entry list. For the men, three of the finalists from World Cup II will meet again with Italy boating their World Cup silver medal crew. In the women’s race the silver and bronze medallists – Germany and Italy – take on each other with the Netherlands hoping to improve on their sixth-place World Cup finish.

Many countries, like Italy, are using this regatta as an opportunity to start the journey to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and have entered a number of under-23 crews.

This is a year on from when Sabaudia was due to host their first international rowing event, but the Covid-19 pandemic pushed the event out to 2021 finally giving Sabaudia the opportunity to showcase the many upgrades and improvements to their venue.

Racing begins on Friday 4 June at 9:30 CET with heats. The races will then progress through repechages, semifinals and finals then begin at 10:35 CET on Sunday 6 June. The finals will be live-streamed on www.worldrowing.com.

Entries and regatta information can be found here. https://worldrowing.com/event/2021-world-rowing-cup-iii
The World Rowing media guide can be found here: http://www.worldrowing.com/mediacenter/

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 Zagreb, Croatia (30 April-2 May), Lucerne, Switzerland (21-23 May) and Sabaudia, Italy (4-6 June). All events have been confirmed.