In the continued quest to protect the health of athletes and to fight against the use of prohibited substances and methods in sport, the International Rowing Federation, FISA, and the International Cycling Union, UCI, have collaborated closely to create a new “No Needles” Policy – a policy that prohibits using injections without a justified medical reason.

The Philadelphia Challenge Cup has been reinstated in all of its former glory and two new champion challengers have been crowned. Iztok Cop of Slovenia and Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic are the 2011 winners of their respective single sculling race.

Early season 2000m racing proved popular in Essen, Germany with 20 nations taking part in the bi-annual Huegel Regatta. Raced on Essen’s Baldeneysee, more than 1500 rowers took part ranging from international and national team rowers to top under-23s as well as those relatively new to the sport.

With the first World Cup of the season only a couple of weeks away, Great Britain has announced their national team. The Samsung World Rowing Cup will be held in Munich, Germany from 27 – 29 May and the British team has stuck to almost the same formula that brought them success in 2010.

In its 5th year, the Toda International Masters Regatta showed the wheels of Japanese rowing continue to spin. Held at the Toda Olympic Boat Course, the rowing course of the 1964 Olympic Games, at Toda, near Tokyo, rowers from throughout Japan took part in the two day regatta.

British university rowers battled rough conditions at the biggest university rowing regatta on the British calendar, the BUCS PwC Regatta.

Australian rowing has received a huge boost by the return of some top rowers to the squad. Trials for the 2011 Australian Rowing Team were completed recently and one of the best crews in the mix is the reunited Olympic Champion men’s double of David Crawshay and Scott Brennan.

Italian coaches got to mix and match their athletes in the regatta that warms up rowers for the coming season – the Memorial Paolo D’Aloja.

France set their best rowers against each other in small boats at the recent French Championships with Julien Bahain finishing again at the head of the men’s single field. Held at Aiguebelette, bid venue for the 2015 World Rowing Championships, racing was over two days and included adaptive and junior races as well as senior races.

The 41st annual Earth Day saw rowing communities get behind activities around the world. In Bled, Slovenia, the home of the 2011 World Rowing Championships, Earth Day celebrations started with the planting of five trees. This is five of 320 trees that will be planted leading up to the World Rowing Championships. These trees are called Skorz and are an endangered species in Slovenia.

Next year the waters of Eton-Dorney, just outside of London will see the best rowers in the world compete at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Great Britain’s rowing squad is making the most of the venue being on home ground and last weekend they staged their senior team trials there.

The German small boat trials has established Marcel Hacker once more at the head of the men’s single sculling field while Ann-Katrin Thiele now sits firmly on top of the women’s single sculling result with Marie-Louise Draeger and Linus Lichtschlag controlling their respective lightweight singles race.

World Champion in the men’s single scull, Ondrej Synek has been beaten by Sweden’s Lassi Karonen.

The Netherlands’ University Rowing Race, The Varsity, was this year won by the Amsterdam student rowing club, Nereus, after six years out of the top spot.

Some of the best rowers in the world will head to Russia this summer for the Golden Blades of St Petersburg sprint regatta. Slotted conveniently in between the first and second Samsung World Rowing Cups of the season, the sprint will be raced on 12 June 2011.

International rowing regatta, the Croatia Open 2011 was held over two days of 9th and 10th of April 2011 in Zagreb, Croatia.

Every year Great Britain’s Head of the River race attracts a large number of competitors and every year the number of international crews grows. This year the event – for men’s eights only – attracted crews from the Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Switzerland, Portugal, France, Croatia and the Netherlands.

It is New Zealand’s largest rowing regatta and the biggest schools sporting events in the country. It is the Secondary Schools Rowing Regatta, the Aon Maadi Cup. Nearly 2,000 high school rowers participate for a week of racing that, for some, is the highlight of their rowing year, if not their rowing career.

Representatives from the International Rowing Federation, FISA, have completed a series of inspection visits for venues bidding to host the 2015 World Rowing Championships.

The arrival of spring in Germany means one thing for national team rowers; team testing. The German national team has just completed ergometer testing and a 6km on-the-water time trial in Leipzig, Germany. This is the first measure for the athletes as they head into the 2011 season.