USRowing will have 10 boats racing at the 2007 FISA World Rowing Junior Championships August 8-11 in Beijing, China.
The regatta, which is serving as the test event for the 2008 Olympic venue, begins Wednesday, August 8, exactly one year before the start of the Games. In total, 600 athletes from 49 countries are scheduled to compete
Following Wednesday's heats, repechages, or second-chance races, will take place on Thursday. Semifinals take place Friday, with finals being held on Saturday. The lane draw will be conducted on Tuesday at 3 p.m. local time.
The U.S. will have crews competing in the women's single sculls, men's single sculls, women's double sculls, men's quadruple sculls, women's pair, women's four, men's four, men's four with coxswain, women's eight and men's eight.
In the junior women's single sculls, Suzanne Maddamma (Pittsburgh, Pa.) will face 18 other scullers. Maddamma, a junior national team veteran, competed in the quadruple sculls at last year's junior world championships. In what is the deepest field, James Hills (Kenmore, N.Y.) will take on 30 other scullers in the men's single sculls.
The duo of Erin Crawford (Tempe, Ariz.) and Taylor Fries (Westport, Conn.) is one of 28 entries in the women's double sculls, while Ben Ludlow (Cincinnati, Ohio), Jason Koch (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich.), Kynan Reelick (Morris, Conn.) and Greg Magarian (Cincinnati, Ohio) will face 23 other crews in the men's quadruple sculls.
With only six entries, the junior women's eight will be a final only event. The crew of Alaizah Koorji (Orinda, Calif.), Molly Hamrick (Tampa, Fla.), Lauren Shook (Grosse Pointe Park, Mich.), Elise Wilson (Montara, Calif.), Natalie Eisermann (Key Biscayne, Fla.), Melisa Ongun (Chicago, Ill.), Caroline Nash (Darien, Conn.), Felice Mueller (Cleveland, Ohio) and Grace Luczak (Ann Arbor, Mich.) will be looking to equal or better the silver-medal performance of last year's crew.
The junior women's pair of Alex Japhet (Edmonds, Wash.) and Cara Linnenkohl (Redmond, Wash.) will compete against nine other boats, while the junior women's four of Celia Kohl (Wilton, Conn.), Martha Kuzzy (Minneapolis, Minn.), Rachel Ogundiran (Bowie, Md.) and Cristina Felix (San Marino, Calif.) is one of nine entries in the event.
The junior men's eight of Anthony Altimari (Huntington, N.Y.), Ian Silveira (West Bloomfield, Mich.), Chris Bowman (Wilmette, Ill.), Nick Jordan (Princeton, N.J.), T.J. Laher (Orinda, Calif.), Nareg Guregian (North Hills, Calif.), Ian Winthrop (Roxbury, Conn.), Chris Lutz (Fairless Hills, Pa.) and Mike Gennaro (Havertown, Pa.) is one of eight crews entered in the event.
The junior men's four of Cameron Klotz (St. Louis, Mo.), Patrick Williams (San Mateo, Calif.), Chris Gear (Leesburg, Va.) and Chris Chang (Hillsborough, Calif.) is one of 15 crews entered in the event, while the junior men's four with coxswain crew of Steve Matyas (Turnersville, N.J.), Matt Fluhr (Christchurch, Va.), Rob Poole (Coronado, Calif.), Kevin Kennedy (Moorestown, N.J.) and Jeremy Bernstein (Oakland, Calif.) will take on seven other crews.