International Rowing Congress News

FISA Congress

The 110^th Ordinary Annual Congress of the International Rowing Federation (FISA) took place in Seville, Spain on Saturday 14 September. Over 110 delegates from 60 countries were present at the Congress, held on the eve of the annual World Rowing Championships which commence in Seville on Sunday.

The main decisions taken by the Congress were:

The 2006 FISA World Championships were allocated to Eton, Great Britain. Other bid cities were Poznan in Poland and Plovdiv in Bulgaria. The delegates at the Congress voted, by secret ballot, to reject the proposal of the FISA Council to allocate the Championships to Plovdiv, Bulgaria. In the case of the rejection by the Congress of the Council recommendation, a second election is held for which all candidates are eligible. Eton obtained the majority vote necessary for the allocation in the third round of voting in which Eton totalled 92 votes and Plovdiv 53 votes.

The newly widened Bosbaan course in Amsterdam, the Netherlands has been conditionally allocated the 2006 World Junior Championships. The decision will be finalised in January of 2003 provided that the organising committee of the Dutch bid are able to propose adequate solutions to the high cost of accommodation in their initial bid.

The Congress unanimously adopted a resolution urging the IOC Executive Board to maintain the Olympic rowing programme in its present form. The IOC has recently received a proposal by IOC Programme Commission to exclude certain events from the Olympic Programme in an attempt to reduce the size of the Olympic Games.

Armenia, Syria and Qatar were elected as new members of FISA, bringing the total membership of FISA to 115 countries.

The venues and dates of the 2003 Rowing World Cups were announced:

Milan, Italy – May 30 to June 1
Munich, Germany – June 20 to 22
Lucerne, Switzerland – July 12 to 13

Arno Boes (GER) was elected as new chairman of the Media, Marketing and Promotion Commission. The following people were re-elected as chairman of their respective specialist commission:

Mike Sweeney (GBR) was re-elected as chairman of the Events Commission
Patrick Rombaut (BEL) was re-elected as chairman of the Umpires Commission
John Boultbee (AUS) was re-elected as chairman of the Competitive Commission
Tricia Smith (CAN) was re-elected as chairman of the Women’s Commission
Peter Morrison (GBR) was re-elected as chairman of the Masters  Commission.
Jose Nunes (POR) was re-elected as chairman of the Adaptive Rowing Commission.

For more information contact Kathleen Di Giacomo Tel +41.79.467.90.67 E-mail:  kathleen.digiacomo@fisa.org