The 2009 USRowing World Championship Trials begin on Tuesday morning at the Finn M.W. Caspersen Rowing Center on Mercer Lake in West Windsor, N.J. The trials, which run through Saturday, will select 16 boats that will represent the United States at the 2009 World Rowing Championships August 23-30 in Poznan, Poland.
Racing will be held in the men's adaptive single sculls, men's single sculls, women's single sculls, lightweight men's single sculls, lightweight women's single sculls, men's pair, women's pair, lightweight men's pair, men's pair with coxswain, men's double sculls, lightweight men's double sculls, lightweight women's double sculls, lightweight men's quadruple sculls, lightweight women's quadruple sculls, women's four and lightweight men's eight. The lightweight women's single sculls event leads the way with eight entries.
The women's single sculls field has six entries including USRowing Training Center's Brett Sickler (Los Gatos, Calif.), an Olympic alternate, and Potomac Boat Club's Margot Shumway (Westlake, Ohio), who stroked the women's quadruple sculls in Beijing. Jessica Reel (Ojai, Calif.), a gold medalist in the Under 23 women's eight will also compete.
In the men's double sculls, Olympians Scott Gault (Piedmont, Calif.) and Wes Piermarini (West Brookfield, Mass.) of California Rowing Club will race together in a field of six boats. Gault was a member of the men's quadruple sculls, while Piermarini raced in the men's double sculls at the 2008 Olympic Games.
Six boats have also entered the women's pair race. Four members of the women's eight that won Olympic gold in Beijing will row in the event including Erin Cafaro (Modesto, Calif.), Susan Francia (Abington, Pa.), Caroline Lind (Greensboro, N.C.) and Lindsay Shoop (Charlottesville, Va.). Cafaro and Francia, who won National Selection Regatta #1 in April, will race together.
Other Olympians scheduled to race include Beijing gold-medalist Elle Logan (Boothbay Harbor, Maine) in the women's four, Beijing bronze-medalist Marcus McElhenney (Lansdowne, Pa.) in the men's pair with coxswain, David Banks (Potomac, Md.) in the men's pair and Greg Ruckman (Cincinnati, Ohio) in the lightweight men's single sculls. Olympic alternates Warren Anderson (Paso Robles, Calif.) and Andrew Bolton (Old Lyme, Conn.) are also scheduled to compete, while Paralympian Ron Harvey (Long Beach, Calif.) will race in the men's adaptive single sculls.
Competition begins on Tuesday at 8 a.m. with heats in three events. Finals, which are held in a best two-out-of-three format, begin on Thursday. For a complete schedule and race results, please visit www.powerhousetiming.com.