The three-day event will offer qualification opportunities to European nations in the men's and women's single sculls, lightweight double sculls and PR1 men's and women's single sculls.

The men's single sculls has the largest field, with 16 nations and 11 athletes who competed at the 2020 European Rowing Championships.

They will contest the three available qualification spots for the postponed Olympic Games.

Stefanos Ntouskos of Greece, who finished fifth at the European Championships, is the highest-ranked of those involved in Varese.

He is likely to be challenged by the experienced Dani Fridman of Israel, Lukas Reim of Austria and young indoor rowing talent Ward Lemmelijn from Belgium.

The women's single sculls involves another talented Greek athlete, Anneta Kyridou, who won bronze at the European Rowing Championships after stepping up from a medal-winning under-23 career.

But the experience of competitors such as Diana Dymchenko of Ukraine and Eeva Karppinen of Finland also looks likely to tell in the chase for the three qualification places.

In the PR1 single sculls category - where the men and women will each be seeking the one Paralympic qualification spot available - racing in the men's event is likely to be particularly competitive between Hungary's Zsolt Peto, who finished fourth at the European Championships, and Maksim Miatlou, who was fifth.

For the PR1 women's single sculls, two countries are lining up - Belarus and Sweden.

The lightweight women's double sculls has seven countries vying for two qualification spots.

Russia includes Anastasia Lebedeva who has a decade of international racing behind her.

Also in with a strong chance will be the Greek boat of Zoi Fitsiou and Evangelia Anastasiadou, who were ninth at last year's European Championships.

In the lightweight men's double Portugal's experienced Pedro Fraga is racing with new partner Afonso Costa, and they will be up against Rio 2016 Olympian Paul Sieber and Julian Schoeberl of Austria.

The organisation of the upcoming event has been complicated due to the coronavirus pandemic, with the Lombardy region of Italy now placed in "red zone" restrictions according to Italian law.

"One of the main logistical hurdles for the event is to get all of the teams, officials and service providers into Italy," said World Rowing executive director Matt Smith.

"While there are exemptions from quarantine for people coming for elite sporting events, the Italian Government regulations have been difficult to decipher.

"The Italian Rowing Federation have been a great help in this situation and have written hundreds of letters of invitations."