Around 900 rowers are expected to compete at the annual Championships, which will take place until Sunday (July 29).

The fields contain several medallists from last year’s event in Bulgaria.

Canada’s Trevor Jones will seek to defend the men’s single sculls title he earned in Plovdiv, but is expected to face competition from Bulgaria’s Boris Yotov.

There will also be an intriguing battle in the lightweight men’s single sculls, with Brazil’s Uncas Batista and Ask Jarl Tjoem of Norway expected to head the field.

Batista was crowned as the champion at last year’s Championships, while his Norwegian rival impressed in the opening World Rowing Cup of the season where he narrowly missed out on a podium finish.

Both the men’s and women’s pair winners from 2017 will hope to defend their titles.

Guillaume and Thibaud Turlan won the men’s event in Bulgaria and the Turkish twins will be the ones to beat in Poznan.

Chile’s Melita and Antonia Abraham, another pair of twins, will look to repeat their women’s pair success.

They won Chile’s first ever gold medal in women’s rowing when they triumphed in 2017.

The Championships are expected to feature numerous athletes who competed at the final World Rowing Cup of the season in Lucerne last weekend.

Several athletes have also headed to Poznan from the European Universities Games, which are ongoing in the Portuguese city Coimbra.