After missing the 2020 edition, the World Rowing Junior Championships is back for 2021 with the best under-19 rowers from 43 nations heading to Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

Taking place from 11 to 15 August the championships has attracted nearly 600 athletes. Germany, the United States and Italy are sending the biggest teams with entries in all of the 14 boat classes. In 2019 Germany topped the medals table and sending a full team means they will be looking to repeat the medal haul this year.

For the first time the women’s double sculls has the most entries with 23 boats entered. The Netherlands won the double in 2019 and this time the Dutch have Lotte van Westreenen in the crew whose older sister won two years ago. Van Westreenen will race with Phaedra van der Molen and will be up against Lithuania which took bronze in 2019 and also Slovenia with daughter of Olympic Champion Iztok Cop, Ruby Cop racing with Jana Dremeij.

The men’s quadruple sculls has also attracted a large field and 22 nations will go for junior championship medals. In 2019 Germany, Italy and Russia medalled and all three of these countries have entered boats for 2021.

The men’s and women’s single sculls have both attracted entries from 21 countries and all eyes will be on Issiah Harrison of the United States in the men’s single. This is Harrison’s first time on the US national team but he has already seen indoor rowing success, owning nearly every junior record. Harrison will face a predominantly European field but also representatives from Latin America and Africa.

The women’s single will feature Aurelia-Maxima Janzen of Switzerland who raced earlier this season at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships where she won silver. Italy’s Ciulia Clerici is one of the few rowers competing this time who also raced at the 2019 World Rowing Junior Championships. Clerici took bronze in the women’s eight two years ago.

As the World Rowing Junior Championships is the pinnacle rowing event for junior rowers, it usually takes until they are 18 years of age to make their junior national team. This means that the athletes often only race at one junior championships before they move on to the under-23 or senior level. So, for the majority of these athletes, they will be competing at the international level for the first time.

For rowers to be eligible to compete at the World Rowing Junior Championships, they must be 18 years of age or under. A rower can compete as a junior until 31 December of the year in which he or she reaches the age of 18; after that date the rower advances to the under-23 category.

Live race tracker, live streaming, results, race reports, photo gallery and live blog will be available throughout the regatta on www.worldrowing.com, as well as updates on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. The official hashtag for the event is: #WRJCHPlovdiv, #WRJCH, #rowing, #worldrowing

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