2003 FISA World Rowing Championships: First Chance at Olympic Qualification

World Rowing Championships 2003 presented by BearingPoint

A record 65 nations and 1078 athletes will participate in the 2003 FISA World Rowing Championships which take place from August 24 to 31 in Milan, Italy. 405 boats will take to the waters of the Idroscalo Park in the eastern suburbs of the Lombardy capital to compete in the 24 boat classes that make up the Championships.

Competition promises to be fierce as the World Championships also represent the first opportunity for crews to qualify for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. The results of racing will lead to 130 boats (64% of all boats) and 404 places (73% of all allocated places) qualifying for Athens. Click here for qualification details.

The high quality line-up to race in Milan includes 52 Olympic medallists as well as 58 World Rowing Champions from 2002. The largest squad comes from the United States with 83 rowers entered in all 24 boat classes that make up the programme.  2003 Rowing World Cup winning nation Germany comes to Milan with 78 rowers in 22 boat classes and host nation Italy has 68 rowers entered in 21 boat classes. The entries also include all 2003 World Cup champions in the 14 boat classes entered in their respective events looking to confirm their successful seasons by earning the title of world champion. The full list of entries by nation in each boat class is attached.

Racing starts on Sunday August 24 at 9:30 hrs (CET) with additional preliminary rounds Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. Semi-finals will be held on August 27 and 28, B-finals will be held on Friday August 29 and the A-finals will take place Saturday and Sunday August 30 and 31 from 9:30 to 12:15 hrs.

The Italian television station RAI will serve as host broadcaster for the Championships, following the races with 16 cameras and providing an international signal of all semi-finals and finals. The pan-European television station, Eurosport, will air racing during semi-finals and finals as will other television stations such as BBC in Great Britain, ZDF in Germany, RAI in Italy, TVS in Slovenia, TV2 in Denmark, and FR2/3 in France.

The Championships week starts with the 111^th FISA Ordinary Congress on Saturday August 23. Approximately 150 delegates from 65 member federations are expected to attend. The agenda points include voting for the host of the 2007 World Rowing Championships.

Visit the official FISA website www.worldrowing.com for live scoring during racing (updated every 500 metres), daily race reviews, interviews, press releases, start lists and full results.

The presenting sponsor for the 2003 FISA World Rowing Championships is BearingPoint, one of the world’s largest business consulting, systems integration and managed services firms.

For more information contact Kathleen Di Giacomo at FISA Headquarters Tel: +41.21.617.83.73, Fax: +41.21.617.83.75 E-mail:  kathleen.digiacomo@fisa.org