Grainger makes competitive return in Poznan as Britain seeks opening flourish at European Rowing Championships

Katherine Grainger, pictured after winning Olympic gold at the London 2012 Games, makes her international return this weekend at the European Rowing Championships in Poznan ©Getty Images

Great Britain, contesting its first international regatta of 2015, is providing the largest number of competitors at the European Rowing Championships which get underway tomorrow in Poznan, Poland - and none will be under greater scrutiny than Katherine Grainger, making her first competitive appearance since winning Olympic gold in 2012.

Grainger, 39, took two years out after the London Olympics, but is now back with new double sculls partner Vicky Thornley - her London 2012 partner Anna Watkins having retired - and is looking towards this year’s World Championships in Aiguebelette and the Rio 2016 Olympics beyond.

The British team at these Championships, which run from May 29 to 31, are also expecting to make a big impact in the women’ pair, where world and Olympic champions Helen Glover and Heather Stanning will defend the title they won last year in a European Best Time.

They will also be strong in the men’s eight, where many of the highest rated rowers have been concentrated, including Moe Sbihi, world champion in the four last year, Olympic and world champion Alex Gregory, and double Olympic champion Pete Reed.

Image title — Double Olympic champion Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus, pictured during the London 2012 Games, will provide formidable opposition for Britain's returning Olympic champion Katherine Grainer in the double sculls at the European Championships this weekend ©Getty Images

Grainger and Thornley - part of a 50-strong British contingent seeking to make a splash in the 2015 season - will have their work cut out in an event which includes another outstanding Olympian, the 1996 and 2000 Olympic single sculls champion Ekaterina Karsten, who is paired in the Belarus boat with Yuliya Bichyk.

Also in a strong field are the 2013 world champions from Lithuania, Milda Valciukaite and Donata Vistartaite, and home rowers Magdalena Fularczyk and Natalia Madaj, who are unbeaten this season.

The men’s eight looks like being a showdown between Germany’s Olympic and defending champions and Britain, which has won at the last two world championships.

Germany will also carry high hopes in the men’s double sculls, where their new pairing of Marcel Hacker, the 2002 single sculls world champion, and Stephan Krueger - convincing winners in the opening World Cup of the season in Bled, Slovenia - will test their world and Olympic ambitions against a field including the 2013 world champions, Kjetil Borch and Nils Jakob Hoff of Norway.

However injury has prevented Croatia’s world champions, the Sinkovic brothers, from taking part.

In the men’s single sculls, world and European champion Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic is using Poznan to make his 2015 debut appearance against a field including the hugely powerful Roel Braas of The Netherlands, 2008 Olympic champion Olaf Tufte of Norway and dark horse Aleksandar Aleksandrov of Azerbaijan.

This year’s venue at Lake Malta hosted the first of the “new era” European Rowing Championships in 2007 after the event - originally established in 1893 - had been revived following a 34-year gap.

The most likely prospect of home gold would appear to be the lightweight women’s double sculls pairing of Weronika Deresz, who took silver at the first World Rowing Cup in Bled this year, and her new partner Joanna Dorociak.