A total of 523 athletes (253 men and 111 women) will take part in the first regatta of the 2004 BearingPoint Rowing World Cup series which takes place at the Malta Regatta Course, Poznan, Poland from 7-9 May. Hailing from 30 countries, the athletes will race in 215 boats.
Germany has entered the largest squad including their World Championship quad from 2003. They come up against home crew Poland who will be looking to improve on their bronze medal from last years World Championships in Milan.
Last years World Champion Neykova (Bulgaria) and silver medalist Rutschow-Stomporowski (Germany) will be battling it out in the womens single scull.
It is a similar story in the mens single scull with 2003 World Champion Olaf Tufte (Norway) and silver medalist Marcel Hacker (Germany) facing off against each other.
In the womens pair World Champions Katherine Grainger and Cath Bishop (Great Britain) will be hoping for another gold ahead of last years silver medalists from Belarus.
In the lightweight womens double the German World Champions will be looking to stay ahead of last years bronze medalists Romania.
The best local crew are Olympic Champions from Sydney 2000, Tomasz Kucharski and Robert Sycz, racing in the lightweight double scull. They were 2nd in Milan last year.
Another event to watch is the lightweight mens four, where the reigning World Champions Denmark will again be tested by silver medalists the Netherlands.
Finally in the womens eight, last years gold and silver medalists Germany and Romania respectively will be fighting for World Cup honours. Elizabeta Lipa at 39 embarks on her 2004 campaign for Olympic gold medal number 5.
FISA are yet again delighted that BearingPoint, one of the worlds largest business consulting systems integration and managed services firms, has joined forces with us to be our Rowing World Cup title sponsor for this year.
The finals, to be raced on Sunday 9 May will be transmitted on the European sports channel Eurosport from 10.00am to 1.30pm as well as on several European terrestrial channels see your local TV listings for more information. Outside of Europe you can watch the racing on our live video streaming on www.worldrowing.com.
A full list of entries and provisional racing timetable are available on www.worldrowing.com/events . During racing the website will also provide start lists, live scoring and results as well as interviews and press releases.