New Zealand gets Nilsson following funding boost

Chris Nilsson

The success of New Zealand rowers at the Athens Olympics has led to a boost in funding with an investment of $4.5 million (2.6 million Euros) for the four-year cycle through to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The funding has enabled Rowing New Zealand to hire a second full-time national coach. Back from seven years of coaching overseas, New Zealander Chris Nilsson has been hired for the position.

Nilsson left New Zealand to take up the position of assistant coach at Oxford University in Great Britain before moving to the Unites States as a national team coach where he assisted head men’s coach, Mike Teti.

Nilsson can be credited as being the original coach of Athens gold medal winners Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell when they first started rowing as high school students. He now takes over as coach of the New Zealand men’s four. The four has retained all but one member of the crew that finished fifth at Athens.

Georgina (l) and Caroline (r) Evers-Swindell

The funding comes from Sport and Recreation New Zealand (SPARC) which has placed rowing amongst the top four sports in the country in terms of investment. This level of funding, says SPARC’s General Manager of Performance Katie Sadleir, is partly due to the expensive nature of the sport. “We looked at the cost for rowing to be competitive,” says Sadleir. “There are huge equipment costs and the cost of international travel.”

“Rowing is viewed very positively in New Zealand,” says Sadleir. “We have had some fantastic role models from Rob Waddell to the Evers-Swindells.”

There is a further NZ$1 million “at risk” funding available to Rowing New Zealand based on medal targets that have been set for each year through to Beijing. The first target is to win two medals at the 2005 World Rowing Championships in Gifu, Japan. Further targets are set for the 2006 and 2007 World Rowing Championships as well as the 2008 Olympics.

“We are expecting to do no worse at Beijing than we did at Athens,” says Sadleir who is cautious to make a prediction. “At least two medals.”

The New Zealand team will make their 2005 international debut at BearingPoint Rowing World Cup II in Munich, Germany starting on 17 June with entries in the men’s four, pair and single and women’s pair with the Evers-Swindell’s racing against each other in the women’s single.

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