Reigning world champion Tom Aggar of Britain is the athlete to beat in the men's singles.

The former rugby player's 2007 World Championship win -- won in a world-best time of 5 minutes 13.13 seconds -- also came in his first year of international rowing. He followed up that historic victory in June this year with a commanding win over Israel's Eli Nawa at the World Cup.

Australia's 2006 world champion Dominic Moneypenny is considered a very strong medal chance while world championship silver medallist Ron Harvey of the United States, Oleksandr Petrenko of Ukraine, Canadian Steve Daniel and Frenchman Patrick Laureau can't be discounted.

"The Canadian athletes have done a good job in the Beijing Olympics, and we are here hoping to pull off a good showing too," said Naniel.

The mixed double presents itself as one of the most open contests of the regatta with world champions Brazil and World Cup winners Poland possibly having a slight edge over the field.

The new Brazilian combination of Josiane Lima and Elton Santana and the consistent Polish team Piotr Majka/Jolanta Pawlak have considerable international experience. Both crews are full of confidence and will relish the opportunity to line up against each other at the Games.

Their main opposition is expected to come from world championship silver medallists Kathryn Ross and John Maclean of Australia, World Cup silver medallists Karen Crombie and James Roberts from Britain and World Cup bronze medallists Iryna Kyrychenko and Sergii Dereza from Ukraine.

The United States crew boast six-time world championship medallist Angela Madsen who will row with Scott Brown for the first time at a major international competition. They must also be considered a strong medal chance while the German and Israeli combinations are expected to perform well.

World champions Germany and silver medallists Britain are tipped to contest the gold medal in the mixed coxed four.

The crews saw some intriguing battles in the past two years as Britain claimed a convincing win over Germany in the World Cup, a reversal of the 2007 World Championships result.

(Xinhua News Agency September 8, 2008)