Russia name their team for the 2023 World Rowing Championships from 3 to 10 September in Belgrade, Serbia. Tokyo 2020 Olympian and former men’s indoor rowing world champion Alexander Vyazovkin is on the team sheet.
2023 World Rowing Championships Coverage
A Russian Rowing Federation (FGSR) press release named four athletes Alexander Vyazovkin, Alexander Yakovlev, Kira Yuvchenko, and Anastasia Lyubich.
Some media outlets have suggested Vyazovkin and Yakovlev will race in the men’s singles while Yuvchenko and Lyubich will race in the women’s singles. But World Rowing rules preclude a nation from entering more than one crew in a boat class at the world championships.
It is expected that Vyazovkin and Yuvchenko will race their respective men’s and women’s singles and the Yakovlev and Lyubich are spares. Dmitry Streltsov will be their team coach and the team leader will be Olga Astakhova.
Yuvchenko was a member of the Russian women’s four that failed to qualify for Tokyo. She is a four time Under 23 Worlds medallist (2015 to 2018) and is set to make her sculling debut at Belgrade.
The most recent press release from the FGSR has named Almaz Sharafiey as the PR1 M1x, who will be accompanied by his head coach Alexander Pyalin.
The recent 2023 Russian Rowing Championships held in Moscow was a key selection race for these athletes who will race in Belgrade under the AIN code. Sharafiey (PR1 M1x), Vyazovkin (M1x), and Yuvchenko (W1x) each won their respective disciplines. Yakovlev missed gold in the men’s single by less than two seconds.
World Rowing eased their ban on Russian and Belarussian athletes in June to allow “a limited number of eligible athletes” to compete as individual neutral athletes (AIN) in Belgrade. The other categories in which these athletes are allowed to enter are the pairs, lightweight single sculls, and the PR1 W1x.
Great Britain topped the medal table at the last world rowing championships in Racice, Czech Republic.
