23 May 2019

Europe’s top rowers will be heading for Lucerne, Switzerland, next week to compete at the 2019 European Rowing Championships. The regatta takes place on Rotsee from 31 May to 2 June, FISA, World Rowing, writes in a press release from yesterday.

The regatta has attracted representation from 36 member federations, tied for the record, with a near record of just under 600 athletes entered. Both Great Britain and Germany are sending the biggest teams with boats in 16 of the 17 boat classes. Italy and the Netherlands also have large teams with 15 boat classes covered.

The 2018 World Champion and Rio 2016 bronze medallist Kjetil Borch of Norway steps out for the first time this season in the men’s single sculls. He will face the winner of the 2019 World Rowing Cup I and Rio 2016 silver medallist, Damir Martin of Croatia. The large men’s single field includes rowers from 25 nations with Rio 2016 bronze and London 2012 silver Olympic medallist Ondřej Synek of the Czech Republic also in the mix.

On the women’s side, home favourite Jeannine Gmelin of Switzerland will be the one to beat. Gmelin is the reigning European Champion, but she will face two Olympic medallists in the single, Mirka Topinkova Knapkova of the Czech Republic, who was the gold medallist at London 2012 and Denmark’s Fie Udby Erichsen, silver medallist at London. Also entered is World Rowing Cup I winner, Lisa Scheenaard of the Netherlands.

The men’s double sculls has attracted a large field with World Champions Hugo Boucheron and Matthieu Androdias of France racing for the first time since their 2018 championship win. They are back together and will face the new German combination of Stephan Krueger and Tim Ole Naske, as well as World Rowing Cup I bronze medallists Stanislau Shcharbachenia and Dzianis Mihal of Belarus.

Romania finished at the top of the medals table at last year’s European Championships and they come to Lucerne with 11 crews including their defending European Champion women’s eight.

Racing begins on Friday 31 May at 9:30 CET. The races will then progress through repechages, semifinals and finals that begin at 10:03 CET on Sunday, 2 June. The finals will be live-streamed on www.worldrowing.com.

Entries and regatta information can be found here.

As the European Championships will be held in Lucerne, there will not be a World Rowing Cup regatta on Rotsee this year.

Rowing has staged European Championships since 1893 and it is one of the longest running sport championships on the international calendar. After a hiatus it was reinstated in 2007, and in 2018 it was part of the inaugural multi-sport European Championships. The European Rowing Championships is open to the 45 European national rowing federations, plus Israel.