Counting one year to Karapiro 2010

It is one year to go until the 2010 World Rowing Championships to be staged at Karapiro, New Zealand and organisers have marked the date with a street parade and the launch of ticket sales.

Lake Karapiro is the home of New Zealand Rowing’s national training centre and the closest town, Cambridge, hosted the one-year-to-go parade. Thousands turned out for the event which featured New Zealand’s 2009 elite rowing team including current World Champions Eric Murray and Hamish Bond from the men’s pair, Storm Uru and Peter Taylor from the lightweight men’s double, and lightweight men’s single champion Duncan Grant.

Karapiro 2010 CEO, Tom Mayo talked to World Rowing on the eve of this milestone.

World Rowing: how have the initial ticket sales been going?
Tom Mayo: Ticket sales have been going very well. We are looking at releasing more as we sold out on the initial offering and we are now opening up more bays. We are selling week-long tickets at the moment and will look to open up the day tickets next year.

WR: Are all the staff for Karapiro 2010 now on board?
TM: There will be another 500 to come on board yet. We try not to differentiate between staff and volunteers so our recruitment process is pretty heavy at the moment. We have just started interest for on-water operations.

WR: What has the volunteer interest been like? – has there been interest from outside of New Zealand?
TM: Yes there has been quite a lot from overseas, but we have to ask them the real question and that is do they want to come and ‘watch’ or ‘volunteer’ as some roles may be stuck out at hotels and not be able to actually see the event or the finals even. Nationally the support is incredible.

WR: I understand the RowBox was in Boston (for the Head of the Charles Regatta). Where will it go now?
TM: The RowBox goes to a shipping port in New Jersey and, fingers crossed, makes its way home any day now. We are struggling to get it on a ship as all are busy with Xmas presents. When it is back here we will give it some much needed attention and send it around New Zealand to 39 locations for eight months.

WR: Do you have other publicity initiatives planned?
TM: Lots, but we can’t tell you!

WR: What team managers have so far visited Karapiro?
TM: We have had USA, Great Britain, Canada and France team managers visit and next week Italy arrives. We are very impressed with the standard of those team administrators and they have been very helpful and we are learning lots from them.

The 2010 World Rowing Championships will begin on 31 October and go to 7 November. Although most world championships are held at the end of August, the later date is to make the most of better weather conditions.

For ticket sales and further information go to the K2010 website: http://www.wrch2010.com/