ROWING: Entries for the first World Rowing Cup ever to be hosted in Australia have closed with more than 250 international athletes from 18 countries confirmed to race at the inaugural Sydney International Rowing Regatta next week. 

Many Olympians and Olympic medallists are making their way to Sydney to race at the Sydney International Regatta Centre in Penrith from 18 to 24 March 2013 -- with the World Rowing Cup component being contested from 22-24 March 2013. 
 
The Sydney International Rowing Regatta will combine the Samsung World Rowing Cup 1, the Australian Open Rowing Championships, the Australian Open Schools Championships and the premium domestic events, the King’s and Queen’s Cups Interstate Regatta, into a week-long festival.  It will be the biggest rowing spectacle in the Asia Pacific region since the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. 
 
The largest teams participating in the opening round of the Samsung World Rowing Cup include host country Australia with 62 athletes, followed by China (44) as well as Great Britain (43) and New Zealand (41).  Great Britain, who topped the medal ranks at the London 2012 Olympic Rowing Regatta, will line up at the 2000 Olympic regatta course with a record number of nine Olympic medalists, including five London 2012 Olympic gold medalists.   Six Olympic gold medalists will be featuring in the U.S. team, who have arrived in Sydney with no less than fourteen 2012 Olympians on board.  World Rowing Cup Team Canada is featuring four Olympic medallists.  Smaller teams will compete from Hong Kong, South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Portugal, Hungary, Germany, Estonia and France – the latter including the French 2012 Olympic silver medal winning men’s pair with Germain Chardin and Dorian Mortelette.
 
Host country Australia has entered 22 crews into the international World Rowing Cup events, including seventeen London 2012 Olympians.  London 2012 Silver and Bronze medallist Kim Crow, Olympic silver medallists Will Lockwood, Josh Dunkley-Smith, James Chapman and Olympic bronze medallists Chris Morgan and James McRae will be leading the team, which holds a promising mix of youth and experience.  The majority of the team will be competing in their first Senior World Rowing Cup.  For all of them, it will be the first time to race at an international rowing event on home waters.
 
Drew Ginn, OAM, four time Olympian, three time Olympic gold medallist and member of the London 2012 silver medallist four and now Rowing Australia Head Coach, supports the extra motivation an international competition on home territory brings to the team:  “It is a great motivation for our team to have the World Rowing Cup on our home waters for the first time ever.  Usually we race far away from home and it is really exciting to have the rowing world come to us and in Sydney for the first time since the 2000 Games.”
 
Australia and many of the international teams will race at both the Australian Open Rowing Championships as well as at the Samsung World Rowing Cup.  Eight international teams are taking up the opportunity of an early hit out ahead of the Samsung World Rowing Cup I and have entered the Australian Open Rowing Championships as a lead up event.  Crews from Czech Republic, China, Estonia, Korea, Singapore, Vietnam, USA and France are amongst the international entries to race the national component of the event from 18 – 22 March 2013. 
 
The Australian Open Schools Rowing Championships have also attracted international interest and successful overseas crews will come from Great Britain, the USA, Ireland and Italy. 
 
Overall, a record number of 2,500 athletes will be racing in 110 events during the Sydney International Rowing Regatta.  20 countries, 74 Clubs and State Institutes as well as 93 schools from across the country will participate in the event. 
 
Chair of the Regatta Organising Committee, John Boultbee was very pleased with the level of entries for this inaugural event at the beginning of the new Olympic cycle:  “It’s very exciting to see the numbers coming to race at our fantastic venue next week.  It is the first time a World Rowing Cup is being held in Australia and it is fantastic to see such a high-calibre international field -- it will give spectators the opportunity to see the Who’s Who’s of World Rowing.  For those who were unable to attend the Olympic Regatta in London, it will be the opportunity to see not only the stars of today but the champions of tomorrow.”
 
The 2013 Sydney International Rowing Regatta will start on Monday 18 March with the Australian Open Rowing Championships running through the week.  The King’s and Queen’s Cup Interstate Regatta will be held on Saturday 23 March.  The climax will be the finals of the Australian Schools Rowing Championships and the Samsung World Rowing Cup (22-24 March) on Sunday 24 March.  It is the first time the Samsung World Rowing Cup is coming to the Southern Hemisphere.  It is one of three World Rowing events which will lead up to the annual World Rowing Championships, this year to be held in Chungju, South Korea 25 August – 1 September 2013.

Rowing Australia