MEDIA GUIDE - World Rowing

IntroductionThe World Rowing Cup series was launched in 1997, and includes all 14 Olympic boat classes as well as internationalevents. The overall World Rowing Cup winners are determined after a series of three regattas. Germany has dominatedthe series since its beginning. Great Britain, however, upset the trend and has won for the past four years.World Rowing Under 23 Championships (Brest, BLR)The city of Brest, on the western border of Eastern Europe’s country of Belarus, was the venue for 58 nations to competeat the World Rowing Under 23 Championships.The under-23s is considered a stepping stone for athletes who are aiming for their nation’s senior national team andthe regatta has been growing every year since it became a World Championship in 2005. Nearly 900 athletes enteredin 2010 – a record number of participants.Germany regularly excels at the under-23 level and this year was no exception with German athletes picking up 12medals – five of them gold – from the 21 events contested. Germany won the prestigious men’s eight and also tookgold in the women’s quadruple sculls and double sculls and men’s single sculls and lightweight men’s quadruple sculls.Winner of the men’s single, Karl Schulze is an example of the methodical German progression system. Schulze comesthrough to the under-23s from racing successfully as a junior on Germany’s national team. For Schulze this year’sunder-23s was his fourth and he added a first gold to his collection of under-23 medals. A few months later Schulzeraced for the first time at senior level at the 2010 World Rowing Championships.The Greeks showed their love of the lightweight double sculls winning both the men’s and women’s event. For thewomen (Triantafyllia Kalampoka and Christina Giazitzidou), it meant successfully defending their 2009 title. Giazitzidouthen went on to claim bronze at the senior World Rowing Championships.But it was the United States who showed the biggest progress compared to achievements in previous years. Alongwith Germany, the United States sent the biggest team of 69 athletes, each covering all 21 events. Their women’s pairof Ashley Kroll and Felice Mueller were the only crew to set a new World Best Time at this regatta. The pair standard isnow 7:14.07, breaking the dominating Romanian record set four years prior.The emerging rowing nation of Iran again experienced success led by their promising lightweight single sculler MohsenShadi Naghadeh. Naghadeh won the lightweight men’s single last year and capped off his under-23 reign with anothergold at Brest. This win was impressive as Naghadeh had to beat Great Britain’s senior squad member Peter Chambersto win. Chambers finished second.The Croatian men’s quadruple sculls continued their dream run by defending their 2009 under-23 title. This quad cametogether in 2009 and soon found success, not just at the under-23 level, but also at the senior level, as they went onto become the senior 2010 World Champions. There is no doubt the crew of David Sain, Damir Martin and brothersValent and Martin Sinkovic are a crew to watch and that they are a major threat to current Olympic Champions, Poland.The Brest regatta course is a 10-laned international standard rowing course. The rowing centre was completed in 2007and two years later it hosted its first international event, the European Rowing Championships. The under-23s was thesecond international regatta staged at this venue and marks the growing desire by the Lukashenko-led governmentto vigorously support sport.11. Media Guide © Copyright 2011 FISA & Infostrada Sports, all rights reserved > www.infostradasports.com