Erik Horrie will be among the favourites for men's single sculls gold ©Getty Images

Gavirate in Italy will host the first Para Rowing International Regatta of the season, starting tomorrow.

The three-day event is likely to feature the resumption of many old rivalries between some of the biggest names in the sport.

This will include the men's PR1 single sculls, when Australia's four-time world champion Erik Horrie locks horns with Ukraine's reigning Paralympic champion Roman Polianskyi.

Polianskyi beat Horrie at Rio 2016 only for Horrie to gain revenge at last year's World Championships in Sarasota-Bradenton.

Britain's reigning Paralympic champion Lauren Rowles and Laurence Whiteley struggled in the PR2 mixed double sculls class after the race distance was changed from 1,000 to 2,000 metres last year.

Dutch duo Annika van der Meer and Corne de Koning won the world title last year and will be desperate to hold-off the British team once again.

Laurence Whitely and Lauren Rowles will be seeking a return to their Paralympic gold medal winning form ©Getty Images
Laurence Whitely and Lauren Rowles will be seeking a return to their Paralympic gold medal winning form ©Getty Images

Britain will be hot favourites for gold in the mixed coxed four class after winning the last three World Championships in the event.

Giedre Rakauskaite and Oliver Stanhope join Grace Clough and James Fox in a race where United States are set to be their biggest challenges.

The women's PR1 single sculls appears anything but predictable as Norway's Birgin Skarstein takes on Israel's Moran Samuel and Germany's Sylvia Pille-Steppart.

Skarstein is the reigning world champion and will be hoping to bounce-back from the disappointment of not winning a cross-country skiing medal at March's Winter Paralympics in Pyeongchang.

Further World Cup regattas are due to take place in Belgrade and Linz before the World Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria in September.