Making Trails to Japan

Australia’s rowers knew back in March whether they would be on their way to Gifu, Japan for the 2005 World Rowing Championships. France’s best rowers won’t know if they’ll be doing the same until barely a week before the start of the Championships.

Usually held in Europe, this is the first time the World Rowing Championships has taken place in an Asian country and the first time Japan has seen international rowing since Tokyo hosted the Olympics in 1964.

Some teams are already starting to arrive in Japan hoping to make the most of acclimatization time. Denmark left this week for a two week training camp in Seta, about one and a half hours from Gifu. The crews were finalised at the end of July and include Athens Olympic Champion Thomas Ebert who will race in the lightweight pair with Bo Helleberg. Ebert has chosen Gifu as his last regatta before retirement.

Poland finished their selection process at the start of August and the team starts their training camp in Kawabe, Japan this weekend. They come to Gifu minus double Olympic Champion Tomasz Kucharski. The injured Kucharski has been replaced by Pawel Randa who will race with two-time Olympic Champion Robert Sycz in the men’s lightweight double.

Meanwhile final selection for the German team is currently taking place with athletes flying out just a week before the Championships commence. But cutting their final selection even finer, France still has three crews to decide. The men’s single, double and coxed four won’t know if they are on the team until after trial races on 19 August with departure for Japan two days later.

The United States has booked in with the largest team of over 100 athletes, coaches and support staff. Communications Director Brett Johnson commented, ?It was definitely trickier than getting to Europe.? The US sent two containers full of boats, one in early July and the second the day of the final time trial for crew selection on 20 July.

The small Bulgarian team has been focusing on World Cup winners, the women’s double, with coach Svilen Neykov deciding after trials that the double would stay together rather than Olympic medalist Rumyana Neykova returning to the single. The team will go straight to Gifu a week before racing starts.

Defending champions in the women’s double, the Evers-Swindell sisters from New Zealand were selected six months ago along with the rest of the team. The squad came to Europe to compete at the Munich and Lucerne Rowing World Cups. They then flew back to the New Zealand winter and will return to the northern hemisphere, and Japan’s summer, early next week.

Also leaving the winter behind, the Australian team has headed north to acclimatize in Queensland. ?This will warm us up a bit ready for Gifu,? says Australia’s high performance director Noel Donaldson. Snow has been falling in Canberra where some of the team has been training. The team will arrive in Gifu just four days before the start of the Championships as Donaldson notes that it is one of the easier trips for them, ?a seven hour flight with a one hour time difference.?

Hungary announced their national team during the Hungarian National Rowing Championships last month and team manager, Dr. Peter Kokas says the highest expectations are on their lightweight men’s double. Tamas Varga and Zsolt Hurling are expected to finish in the top three. The team is using Hungary’s Lake Velence for their pre-Gifu training camp. Here, says Kokas, the water is more similar to Gifu with a taste of some windy weather.

Conspicuous in their absence, China has opted out of this year’s Rowing World Championships. The Chinese National Championships are in October and regional coaches are concerned that their athletes will not have enough time to recover after Gifu.

The 2005 World Rowing Championships will be held at the Nagaragawa International Rowing Course in Gufu, Japan. Racing starts with heats on 28 August and run through to finals on 3 ? 4 September. All events will be covered on www.worldrowing.com including the live race viewer for semi-finals and finals. 

For more information click here.

The World Rowing team values feedback