2014 European Rowing Championships leads the way

The 2014 European Rowing Championships in Belgrade, Serbia has attracted the largest field in its eight-year history and the support for this event is evident across the board from the record number of nations attending, to the number of competitors as well, as the worldwide interest through television and digital mediums.

Host city Belgrade has hailed the Championships as the biggest event of the year for their City, and with crowds of up to 5000 expected for the finals, this event has truly established itself on the international sporting calendar.

With two days of racing completed, the European Rowing Championships is ready for the finals on Sunday 2 June. Serbia's national broadcaster, together with World Rowing Productions, will host broadcast the A Finals. Also confirmed are nine European national television networks showing live coverage of racing and 19 other channels screening dedicated news bulletins prepared by World Rowing Productions using the mother-tongue of these nations.
The finals will showcase the best of European rowing and include crews that have come to Sunday's racing by setting new European Best Times during their heats and semi-finals.

The lightweight women's double sculls has created a lot of interest with the current World Champions, Laura Miliani and Elisabetta Sancassani of Italy looking to be under threat from Germany's Anja Noske and Lena Mueller. Germany may also threaten the reigning World Champions Norway in the men's double sculls. Hans Gruhne and Stephan Krueger have had a great regatta so far and will meet Norway's Kjetil Borch and Nils Jakob Hoff in the final for the first time.

The men's four looks to be showcasing Great Britain's new line-up, but with an impressive crew from Greece ready to take them on in the final. Serbia has regularly had a strong men's pair and this looks to be the case again at Belgrade. The new crew of Veselin Savic and Dusan Bogicevic will have the home crowd support when they face Germany and the Netherlands in an attempt to win an European Championship medal.

The women's eight final is looking promising for regular European Championship winners, Romania. The men's eight, however is not looking so clear cut. Russia has come into the final through the repechage and look to be improving with every race while Germany recorded the fastest times in the heats but have not yet met the other heat winners Poland.
Apart from racing at the European Rowing Championships, the initiative between World Rowing and WWF - and their partnership for clean water - has established a new precedent. The World Rowing Federation, FISA intends to translate its Environmental Guidelines into as many languages as possible to boost local application. The first of these translations has just been accomplished in Belgrade through a cooperation between WWF Serbia and the Serbian Rowing Federation.

"We are really pleased to have these guidelines adapted to our language. The WWF/World Rowing alliance is largely about establishing best practices in sustainable sports event management. We need to ensure that rowing events protect the environmental conditions around the water courses on which they are held. This is why FISA's Environment and Sustainability Guidelines are so important," said Duska Dimovic, WWF Serbia Country Manager.