A total of 63 nations have entered 314 crews for the Championships, with Germany, which finished top of the table last year with 12 medals, supplying the largest team of 21 crews - 69 athletes.

The previous record of participation was 57 nations, with 309 crews at last year's version of the event in Brest, Belarus, where Louloudis and Nash were in the British four which took silver.

Louloudis, 19, and Nash, 21 finished fourth in this year's GB Senior Trials, earning selection for last weekend's senior World Cup race in Lucerne, where they finished a highly creditable seventh in the pairs.

The young British pair, who were rivals in this year's Boat Race, with Louloudis' Oxford crew proving victorious, both earned silver at these Championships last year in the four, and will be confident of going one better this year.

The Bosbaan regatta course was widened in the early 2000's to eight racing lanes, and a new finish tower and boat house facilities built.

It will host the 2014 World Rowing Championships in August of that year.

Highlights of last year's regatta included an under-23 world best time in the women's pair, set by Ashley Kroll and Felice Mueller of the USA.

Mueller is back this year with a new partner, Grace Luczak, who was part of the 2010 under 23 World Champion women's eight.

Greece's Triantafyllia Kalampoka and Christina Giazitzidou won their second under-23 title last year and are back again with a third gold on their mind.

Two-time Junior World Champion and Youth Olympic silver medallist Felix Bach, from Germany, will be racing in the under-23 men's quadruple sculls.

Alexander Alexandrov, a 21-year-old Bulgarian with an Azerbaijan passport, has six years of international racing in the men's single sculls under his belt.

A two-time junior world champion, a silver medallist at under 23 level and a bronze medallist at the European Rowing Championships, he will be a single sculler to look out for.

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