800+ Athletes for Karapiro 2010

At the official close of entries for the 2010 World Rowing Championships, international rowing federation FISA confirmed today that 800+ athletes will be competing in the 2010 World Rowing Championships at Lake Karapiro.

The largest team for the Championships comes from the USA with 24 crews entered. The USA will be represented in all 14 Olympic boat classes, all eight international events and two of the five adaptive events.

Germany has entries in 22 boat classes and Great Britain in 20. The next largest teams are Italy and host nation New Zealand with 18 entries, China with 17 entries, Australia with 15 entries and Canada and France with 12 entries apiece.

Samoa and the United Arab Emirates will compete for the first time at the World Rowing Championships. 

"We are delighted with the number of entries," says CEO Tom Mayo. "It's fantastic to have this depth and quality of competition."

For the first time ever, the medal finals of the World Rowing Championships shall be raced over four days, from Thursday 4 to Sunday 7 November, a change which came about in an attempt to improve and increase international media and television coverage of World Rowing’s flagship event.

FISA will publish a full event by event preview on www.worldrowing.com from Friday 29 October.