200 days until World Rowing Championships

With 200 days to go much of the main organisation has been done and now the detail is being filled in.

Mayo spent much of last season attending some of the international rowing events in Europe to get ideas. The trip included going to the World Rowing Championships in Poznan and Great Britain’s Henley Royal Regatta. Coming from an athletics and triathlon background, Mayo described rowing as full of friendly and welcoming people.

The European trip was also to publicise the 2010 World Rowing Championships using the Karapiro publicity container, the ‘RowBox’. Mayo has already seen the benefits of the Box. “A couple from Boston (USA) bought flights to New Zealand after they saw the RowBox,” says Mayo. “More than 60 families are already on the list of the travel package.”

Mayo is aiming for 80,000 spectators which he says is very doable over eight days and he is a “great big fan” of finals being spread over four days.

Since FISA’s events team visited last year, there has been a lot of changes. The big change is the construction of a new community convention centre which will be completed, and able to be used, for the World Rowing Championships. The number of staff is now up to 40 made up of full and part-time workers, some paid, some volunteer.

The volunteer interest has been huge says Mayo. “There already more than 600 people on the database including interest from overseas.”

The event will start at the end of October which corresponds to the end of April in the northern hemisphere. This is springtime and the weather can be unpredictable. Mayo says watching weather forecasts has already become important to him. “I know exactly what’s going to happen in October and November,” he says. In an attempt tomanage expectations, he continues, “It will be wet on the 2nd and 3rd of November.” The study of weather patterns indicates that in an eight day period there will be two days of rain and wind.

Mayo says the main thing that will make Karapiro unique from other world championships is the interest it will generate. “It will scare the living daylights out of the rowing community,” says Mayo. “Rowing is on the TV news regularly (in New Zealand). New Zealand will come to a stop when the (world championship) finals are on. The event is the major event for New Zealand this year.”

Lake Karapiro last hosted the World Rowing Championships in 1978 and of those involved in organising it 32 years ago there is still a handful of the same people involved in 2010. “The sport has moved on so much, but these guys have important institutional knowledge,” says Mayo.

Already about 40 countries have made enquiries with the Karapiro 2010 organisers and Mayo says there has been visits from 12 countries including Poland, Germany, the United States, Canada, Great Britain and France.