Strong field for European Rowing Championships

The European Rowing Championships gets underway at Poznan, Poland, on Friday (9 October)  and will mark the beginning of the competitive action, more than six months after the COVID-19 pandemic had brought the sport to a grinding halt.   

The Championship offers four Paralympic events and a stiff competition is expected in the women’s single sculls PR1. All eyes will be on 2019 World Championship silver medallist Nathalie Benoit of France. Her main challengers will be Ukraine’s Anna Sheremet and Germany’s Sylvia Pille-Steppat, who are both regular A-final finishers.

The men’s single sculls PR1 sees the return of 2019 World Champion from Ukraine and firm favourite Roman Polianskyi who will face a big challenge from world silver medallist Alexey Chuvashev from Russia.

The mixed double sculls PR2 sees the return of the world silver medallists from the Netherlands, Corne de Koning and Annika van der Meer. Watch out, too, for the French duo of Perle Bouge and Christophe Lavigne. They finished third at the 2019 World Championships and now have had another year of rowing together.

Van der Meer wrote on her Instagram: "50 weeks after our last race our next race is ‘confirmed’ European rowing championships in 8 weeks, let’s find that race mode again after this weird season, even though I also have a full time job nowadays."

The mixed coxed four PR3 has a five-boat entry and in the absence of Great Britain, all eyes will be on the Italian crew. Italy finished third at the 2019 World Championships and has kept the same line-up. Russia who finished fifth at the 2019 World Championships can also spring a surprise.

The European Championships runs until 11 October and can be followed on World Rowing' website.