MEDIA GUIDE - World Rowing

Introduction1.3. 2010 World Rowing Season – HighlightsWorld Rowing Championships (Karapiro, NZL)Seldom is the World Rowing Championships staged in the Southern Hemisphere, so when it is, it’s a big deal. The lasttime was 1990 when Lake Barrington in Tasmania, Australia, played host. This time Lake Karapiro in New Zealand wasthe venue and so, to make the most of warmer spring weather, these championships were held later than usual, at theend of October. Forty-nine nations made the trek Down Under’.The World Rowing Championships stretches over eight days and traditionally all finals have been raced on the last twodays. In a move to cater for television and spectator viewing, finals were spread over the last four days.Adaptive finals were first up. Tom Aggar of Great Britain proved again to be the shining light of adaptive rowing. Hebroke his own World Best Time in the men’s heat of the arms and shoulders men’s single sculls and then won the finalhandily to become a three-time consecutive World Champion.It took technical superiority to win on the second day of finals when choppy water played over the 2000m course. France(Macquet, Chardin, Despres and Mortelette) caused a dramatic upset when they pushed reigning World ChampionsGreat Britain out of first. The British finished out of the medals as an on-form Greece and a fired-up New Zealandstormed through to second and third respectively.The biggest upset of the championships, however, involved the solo scullers. The relatively petite Frida Svenssonof Sweden took on the statuesque multi World and Olympic Champion Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus in the women’ssingle sculls, and won. The men’s single sculls also witnessed a changing of the guard when Ondrej Synek (CZE) beatfour-time World Champion Mahe Drysdale (NZL) to the line.Croatia’s youthful, but adept, men’s quadruple sculls – Sain, Martin and the Sinkovic brothers – rounded out a splendidseason by adding their first World Champion title to their world under-23 titles. This result bodes well for the Croatiansin future battles with Olympic Champions, Poland, who did not race in New Zealand.Buoyed by the home crowd, New Zealand pulled off a double-header, winning both the men’s and women’s pairs. NewZealand last hosted the World Rowing Championships in 1978 and on that occasion the nation picked up just one medal.This time the Kiwis walked away with 10 medals – three of them gold.Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins completed an unbeaten season with a win in the women’s double sculls at LakeKarapiro. This continued Grainger’s reign as Great Britain’s most successful woman rower ever and the match-up withWatkins looks to be a partnership that could go down in rowing history.The blue riband men’s and women’s eights rounded out the 2010 season and saw current World Champions – the UnitedStates women and the German men – reinstate their dominance. The USA, coxed by Mary Whipple, never really hadto sprint, with Canada pushing into second and former eights dominator, Romania, managing to finish third. MartinSauer, coxswain of the German men, took his crew to the lead at the start and raced from the front for the entire 2000m.Australia and Great Britain fought for second with the British sprint rewarding them with silver.At the end of the regatta Great Britain had come through at the top of the medals table.9. Media Guide © Copyright 2011 FISA & Infostrada Sports, all rights reserved > www.infostradasports.com