Gifu Goings On ? World Rowing Championships

By Melissa Bray

Origami crane leis for the athletes, humid temperatures in the 30s, as much Asahi water as you can drink and 2,000 metres of untouched-by-typhoon water. The 2005 World Rowing Championships in Gifu, Japan are gearing up for racing to start on Monday, 29 August.

Australia's lightweight four ready for the weather

Heat and humidity? Not a problem says Tom Gibson, Tim Smith, Todd Skipworth and Mike McBryde of Australia's new lightweight men's four. Despite coming from winter, the four have just come off an acclimatisation training camp in the northern part of their country, Rockhampton.

Typhoon worries? ?The first few days here were complicated with the waves and current and typhoon worries,? says Peter Thiede who has coxed the German men's eight since 1987. ?Now everything looks more like a regatta. The feeling is coming.?

?I was a little nervous at first, but now I can see it all coming together,? says American Julia Nichols who is at her third World Championships, but for the first time in the lightweight women's double.

Alexandr Zyuzin of Russia's lightweight four keeps cool

The organisation? ?When I arrived it was a big disaster,? says Raffaello Leonardo who is the most senior member of the Italian men's eight. ?Now it's very nice. Now it's completely different.?

Leading up to the start of racing Gifu turned on the celebrations – two of them. The more formal opening ceremony was attended by His Imperial Highness Prince Tomohito of Mikasa, rowing officials and local dignitaries. They were treated to traditional Japanese music, Taiko drummers and welcome speeches.

The other opening ceremony was a more casual affair held at the Nagaragawa International Regatta Course in front of more than 2,000 people. Many athletes and local residents filled the audience to watch Japanese folklore and fireworks.

?For me it was very emotional,? said FISA Commentator Peter Gissler. ?The local people are very proud that the World Rowing Championships are in Japan for the first time.?

Today's team managers meeting released the draw for the first round of races, the heats. The two centre lanes ? 3 and 4 ? were seeded by past results with the remaining crews randomly filling the outer lanes of each heat.

Opening ceremony Taiko drummers

As the regatta is now one day shorter, the only change to the original programme is that all repechages will be raced on Wednesday, 31 August, rather than spread over two days.

The World Rowing website will feature live scoring with live transmissions of the finals available online to countries outside of Europe.

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