Beijing's rowing course nears completion

The Beijing Olympic Regatta Course in Sunyi is nearly completed.

FISA’s events delegation, just back from a site visit to the venue of the 2008 Olympics, report that the rowing course is nearly finished at the Shunyi Olympic Aquatic Park on the edge of Beijing, China.

This is record time considering the last site visit, five months ago, saw just one-third of Aquatic Park completed. A seven-day working roster has meant that the course is now nearly at completion.

FISA’s Executive Director Matt Smith says the course direction has been oriented to diminish the chance of cross winds.

?The start will be in the north and the finish in the south ? nearly exactly straight,? said Smith. ?That will mean a prevailing head wind with the afternoon racing, but it will be a very slight head wind.?

About 600 workers have been rostered seven days a week to get the course to this stage and those numbers will increase to 1,400 workers in the coming weeks. This is to target a completion date of July 2006 with water being added in September.

Chair of FISA Adaptive Rowing Commiission, Fay Ho (third from left), and Chair of FISA’s Events Commission, Mike Tanner (fourth from left) with the construction team behind the grandstand building at Shunyi International Regatta Course.

?The preparations are advancing really well. The Beijing organisers have met all time commitments and are actually ahead of schedule,? says Smith. ?We are really pleased with their progress.?

Local rowing regattas will be the first to use the new course with the World Rowing Junior Championships in August 2007 to be allocated as the test event.

Smith says there are a couple of features that will make the course unique.

?The white water course for canoeing is very near the finish area which will make for lots of life during the rowing event. White water takes place during the week of rowing and also in the afternoon, like rowing,? says Smith.

Shunyi Olympic Aquatic Park is about 30 minutes from the Olympic village and, traffic depending, central Beijing is between 10 minutes and one hour away. The Park is surrounded by farmland and close to the city of Shunyi, a city of about 500,000 inhabitants.

Smith says the air quality is being investigated. ?We can say that we are far enough outside of Beijing so that we are removed from the air pollution of the city,? says Smith.

This will be the first Olympic Games to include adaptive rowing and currently the plans for the boathouses are being modified to allow for accessibility.

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