FISA's Extraordinary Congress in Dubrovnik, Croatia

Hotel Croatia
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DAY 2

Friday morning started with the last arrivals present. Danish Rowing Federation president Morten Espersen was joined by the new president of the Iranian Rowing Federation who is also Deputy Minister of Transport for the Islamic Republic of Iran. They arrived at 3 in the morning due to the fact that their plane could not land in Dubrovnik last night and they had to take the four hour bus ride from Split.  

Rules of Racing
Mike Tanner, Chairman of the Events Commission, continued his review of the proposed changes to the Rules of Racing. First up this morning were the Advertising Bye-Laws. At their November meeting the FISA Council adopted some modifications to the Advertising Rules that were published in Circular No. 5 of 2004. The Norwegian Federation then asked for advertising space on the canvas / deck section of boats and, this morning, the Council accepted this proposal and further modified the rules announcing them this morning. Tanner then went into the newly formulated section on Safety and Fairness. The whole middle section of the Rule Book has been revamped to make it easier to read for rowers and coaches. The rules of umpiring have been moved to the back of the book.

“Chairman” or “Chair”
The Congress then considered the question of ?Chairman? and decided to vote on Saturday on the word ?Chair? as the only alternative.

Lightweight Averaging
The delegates then returned to the question of the proposed changes to lightweight weights. There was a preliminary vote to determine the proposal on eliminating lightweight averaging. It was decided that the proposal for vote on Saturday morning would be for elimination of averaging from 1st January 2009 instead of the proposed 1st January 2007. This will be part of the proposal for vote on Saturday morning requiring two-thirds vote. The proposal for weights did not change and the vote will be for 70 and 57 kgs. If this proposal fails to get the required two-thirds of the valid votes, the British Federation have made an amendment proposal which will go to vote on Saturday which would lower the maximum weight for lightweight single scullers to 70 and 57 kgs, men and women, respectively.

World Rowing Under 23 Championships
The question of the proposed World Rowing Under 23 Championships was raised again. The Council presented the problem of extra, unanticipated costs for the organizers of the 2005, 2006 and 2007 events if they should suddenly become Championships. An additional expenditure of approximately Euros 80’000 would be required at each regatta to bring it up to the appropriate level. This might mean entry fees for the participating federations in the coming three years until a fresh bidding city for 2008 can be required to cover these costs if they are awarded the regatta. This will be a vote on this issue as well on Saturday.

New Council Executive Committee members
Additional votes on Saturday will include confirmation of the new members to the Executive Committee John Boultbee and Jean-Christophe Rolland as well as confirmation of Mike Tanner as Chairman of the Events Commission for the remainder of the term started by Mike Sweeney. As well, the Council will announce two new members of the Competitive Rowing Commission to replace Brian Richardson (CAN) and Michael Mueller (GER) who have recently stepped down.

Keep connected to www.worldrowing.com for regular reports from Dubrovnik.
The World Rowing team values feedback.

DAY 1

Afternoon

Thursday afternoon concentrated on completing the preliminary discussions on the changes proposed in the Statutes and starting into the proposed changes for the Rules of Racing. The afternoon flight from Zagreb was able to land in Dubrovnik and the Congress delegates who were stranded around Europe were in their seats by mid-afternoon. These included Roland Weill of the French Federation, Holger Siegler of the German Federation and Denis Masseglia the final Council member to reach Dubrovnik.

Ethics
Statutes discussed included the new section on Ethics whereby the FISA Executive Committee would hear all cases on alleged un-ethical conduct in the sport of rowing except when a member of the Executive Committee is implicated, then the IOC Ethical Commission would hear the case and render a judgment. As well, the FISA Council has added new paragraphs to the Declaration of Principles section to include Environmental Responsibility and a paragraph on Inclusion and Accessibility recognising the progress made in the area of rowing for people with disabilities. The FISA Council is also proposing eliminating the word ?Chairman? and replacing it with the gender-neutral word ?Chair? which is not supported by some English-speaking delegations.

Rowing Under 23 Regatta
The delegates then started into the proposed changes to the Rules of Racing including whether the World Rowing Under 23 Regatta should become a World Championship. Roland Baar of the German Rowing Federation presented their proposal for transforming this event into a World Championship mentioning some of the reasons to support this change including the likelihood of improved funding from Sports ministries in several countries and the fact that most rowers and coaches already consider it a World Championship regardless of the name. The FISA Council presented their concerns about this proposal including the difficulties of organising committees to generate sufficient funding in order to present a top quality regatta and the fact that there are already 133 World Champions created each year. This would produce an additional 63 World Champions which is difficult to justify when compared to other sports.

Lightweight Men’s Eight
Patrick McNamara, President of the Australian Federation presented their proposal to re-introduce the Lightweight Men’s Eight to the World Championship programme as well as their proposal to exclude Olympic events as well as the eights from possible elimination due to the three year, seven or more ?natural death? clause. This will be voted upon on Saturday morning.

Weight averaging for lightweights
The delegates then launched into discussions on the Council’s proposal to eliminate weight averaging for lightweight rowers. Dr. Alain Lacoste of the FISA Sports Medicine commission presented the Council’s view that each athlete should be given full responsibility for his or her body, including the set weight for race day which would mean that if he was over weight, only he would have to do additional work to try to reduce his weight by one hour before the race and not force all his teammates to start into dangerous sudden and urgent weightloss methods. The Australian delegation rose to defend the present averaging system and they were joined by several other federations.

Weight of single scullers
Then there was a proposal for amendment to reduce the weight of the single scullers from 72.5 kgs (men) and 59 kg (women) to 70 kg (men) and 57 kg (women). This will be discussed further on Friday for vote on Saturday. Another proposed amendment is to raise the proposed maximum weight from 70 and 57 to 71 and 58 kg. And yet another proposal is to delay the implementation of a change to maximum weights to 2009. All these will be discussed further Friday.

Morning

The Congress started this morning at nine o’clock and has concentrated on the Statutes up to now, mid-day pause. The Congress will re-convene at 2:30 hrs to finish the Statutes review and start into a review of the Rules. The proposals for the elimination of the average weight for lightweights and the possible re-instatement of the lightweight eight will be discussed this afternoon or Friday morning. The voting on these proposals will take place on Saturday morning.

The 2005 FISA Extraordinary Congress started today, Thursday, in the Croatian city of Dubrovnik chaired by FISA President Denis Oswald. There are 120 delegates representing 44 national rowing federations present at the moment. Some delegates are still stuck in airports around Europe due to the heavy winter storm conditions. Some delegates were not able to land in Dubrovnik due to the very strong ?Bora? north wind presently being experienced in Croatia. FISA Council member Denis Masseglia is also stuck in Zagreb due to the closure of Munich airport yesterday due to heavy snow. Continental Representative Eduardo Palomo from El Salvador had to take five different airplanes to finally reach Dubrovnik after one leg of his trip was delayed. He was in the group of delegates that could not land on Tuesday evening in Dubrovnik and had to take a bus for the last leg from the city of Split.

Keep connected to www.worldrowing.com for regular reports from Dubrovnik.
The World Rowing team values feedback.