Over 600 athletes for the World Rowing Cup series finale in Lucerne

The 2022 World Rowing Cup series will conclude in Lucerne, Switzerland next weekend with the third and final regatta in the series. This will be the last major international racing opportunity for many nations before the all-important 2022 World Rowing Championships in September.

More than 600 rowers from 39 nations will be competing across 17 boat classes at the 2022 World Rowing Cup III. China will be sending the largest team, with 70 athletes. Earlier this season at the 2022 World Rowing Cup II, China won gold in both the men’s and women’s quadruple sculls. Australia, Germany and Great Britain are also sending big teams to the Rotsee, the “lake of the gods”, and will be looking to build on their World Cup standings from earlier this season. Romania and Italy will be sending large teams for the first time in 2022.

A showdown in the women’s single sculls is expected between 2018 World Rowing Champion Jeanine Gmelin of Switzerland, reigning Olympic Champion Emma Twigg of New Zealand and Austria’s Olympic Bronze medallist Magdalena Lobnig. This will be the first time the three are racing each other since the A-Final in Tokyo, where Twigg took home the gold medal. Also present will be Hannah Scott of Great Britain, bronze medallist at the 2022 World Rowing Cup I, as well as Donata Karaliene of Lithuania and Diana Dymchenko, the former Ukrainian now representing Azerbaijan.

The men’s single sculls has huge depth with winner of World Rowing Cup I Oliver Zeidler of Germany facing the Tokyo Olympic silver medallist, Kjetil Borch of Norway. Borch is looking to build back this season after having had surgery a few months ago. The French have once again split their Olympic Champion men’s double sculls into two singles for this regatta. Also present will be World Rowing Cup I bronze medallist Graeme Thomas of Great Britain, Olympic silver medallist, Damir Martin of Croatia, Olympians Mindaugas Griskonis of Lithuania, Luca Rambaldi of Italy and Kaspar Taimsoo of Estonia.

Olympic Champions Grace Prendergast and Kerri Williams (nee Gowler) of New Zealand have been dominating the women’s pair and will face Great Britain’s Esme Booth and Emily Ford for the first time. Booth and Ford took home gold at World Rowing Cup I. In the men’s pair, Tom George and Oliver Wynne-Griffith, winners in Belgrade, are up against Matt MacDonald and Tom Mackintosh of New Zealand, winners in Poznan.

The women’s eight will see the return of reigning Olympic Champions of Canada, as well as Romania, who will both be facing the Australians, bronze medallists in Poznan. Ten boats are entered for the men’s eight – the highest entry at a World Rowing Cup since 2017 – and all eyes will be on Germany and Great Britain, who were only separated by 0.03 seconds last year in Lucerne, and are both on rebuilding paths after the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

The draw for the heats will take place on Thursday, 7 July at 15:00 CET. The Athlete Lane Selection (ALS), tested out in Poznan for the 2022 World Rowing Cup II, will be implemented again – this will provide athletes and coaches added tactical decision making by allowing the athletes to select their lane based on their ranking from their previous race.

Racing will begin on Friday 8 July at 9:00 CET with the heats of the women’s pair. Racing then progresses through repechages, quarterfinals, semifinals to the finals which will be raced over two days – Saturday 9 July for the international boat classes and Sunday 10 July for all Olympic boat classes.

There will be live video streaming of the A-finals on www.worldrowing.com.

Regatta information can be found here.

Entries can be found here.

The World Rowing media guide is online here.

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 Belgrade, Serbia (27-29 May), Poznan, Poland (16-19 June), Lucerne, Switzerland (8-10 July).

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