World Rowing announces 2009 award finalists

The winners are selected by the FISA Executive Committee and will be announced in January 2010.

2009 WORLD ROWING AWARD FINALISTS

2009 World Rowing Coach of the Year

• Dick Tonks, New Zealand. As head coach for New Zealand, Tonks’ achievements in 2009 include World Championship titles in the men’s single and men’s pair. Tonks has held his head coach position since 2001 and gained much notoriety after New Zealand won four gold medals at the 2005 World Rowing Championships. He is New Zealand’s most successful international coach and his list of rowing charges include Brenda Lawson and Philippa Baker, Rob Waddell, Nicky Coles and Juliette Haigh, Mahe Drysdale, Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell, Eric Murray and Hamish Bond. Dick Tonks was FISA Coach of the Year in 2005.
• Tom Terhaar, United States. Terhaar has been the USA women’s head coach since 2001 and his achievements this year include gold medals in the women’s pair and eight at the World Rowing Championships. Past achievements with the US women’s team also include World Championship titles in the women’s eight in 2007, 2006 and 2005, 2002. His crews also achieved World Championship titles in the women’s four (2007 and 2003) and Olympic gold in 2008 in the women’s eight (the first gold medal in this event since 1984) and Olympic silver in 2004 (first medal since 1984).
• Aleksander Wojciechowski, Poland. Coach of Polish men’s quad (2009 World Champions, 2008 Olympic gold medallists), Wojciechowski brought the quad together after the Athens Olympics where the quad only just missed out on winning a medal. By 2005 the crew were World Champions and they remained together and remained at the top retaining the World Champion status in 2006, 2007 and 2009 and an Olympic gold in 2008. Wojciechowski was World Rowing coach of the year in 2008.

2009 World Rowing Male Crew of the Year

• Mahe Drysdale, New Zealand, Men’s single sculls. Drysdale completed his 2009 international season unbeaten wrapping it up with his fourth consecutive World Championship title in the men’s single. Drysdale also has an Olympic bronze medal in hand and has competed at two Olympic Games.
• Adam Korol, Michal Jelinski, Marek Kolbowicz and Konrad Wasielewski, Poland, Men’s quadruple sculls. This Polish crew won their fourth consecutive World Champion title in front of their home crowd in 2009. They also have gold from the 2008 Beijing Olympics and were the FISA Male Crew of the Year in 2006.
• Eric Murray and Hamish Bond, New Zealand, Men’s pair. Murray and Bond began rowing together in the men’s four in 2006. A year later they were World Champions. After racing in the four at the Beijing Olympics, the duo swapped to the pair in 2009 and immediately showed their speed by winning every race they entered internationally. They topped the year off by winning the World Rowing Championships.

2009 World Rowing Female Crew of the Year

• Ekaterina Karsten, Belarus, Women’s single sculls. Karsten has stood out in the women’s single for over 13 years, since winning her first Olympic gold medal in Atlanta in 1996. During that period she has won two Olympic gold medals, six World Championship titles, and an impressive 23 Rowing World Cup gold medals in addition to several silver and bronze medals earned in the single but also the women’s quad and double sculls events. After finishing third at the Beijing Olympics, Karsten came back to the top this year by winning at the World Rowing Championships. She was the 2006 FISA Female Crew of the Year.
• Erin Cafaro and Susan Francia, United States, Women’s pair. Cafaro and Francia have been rowing together in the US women’s eight since 2008, but only came together as a pair in 2009 having both made different attempts in this boat with other partners. Their first international event as a pair at the World Rowing Champinships in Poznan this year resulted in gold while doubling up in their country’s eight.
• Erin Cafaro, Mara Allen, Laura Larsen-Strecker, Zsuzsanna Francia, Anna Goodale, Lindsay Shoop, Caroline Lind, Katherine Glessner and Katelin Snyder (coxswain), United States, Women’s eight. Various formations of this boat have become three-time World Champions and World Best Time holders since 2006. The majority of this crew have been working together for the last five years aiming to redeem their 2004 Olympic silver medal and go one better, which they succeeded to do in Beijing, breaking the Romanian stronghold and becoming Olympic Champions in 2008. They then became World Champions in 2009. The USA women’s eight was awarded the World Rowing Female Crew of the Year in 2008.

2009 World Rowing Adaptive Crew of the Year

• Josiane Lima and Elton Santana, Brazil, Trunk & arms mixed double sculls. Lima and Santana have rowed together since 2008 when they achieved a Paralympic bronze medal at the first ever Paralympic rowing regatta. Before that Lima had already won World Championship gold in Munich in 2007. At that time, Santana had been racing in the legs, trunk & arms mixed coxed four (LTAMX4+) which finished 8th in 2007. This year the duo finished second against stiff competition.
• Alla Lysenko, Ukraine, Arms & shoulders women’s single sculls. Lysenko appeared on the international adaptive rowing scene in 2009, winning gold at the adaptive rowing regatta in Munich in June and then going on to win the World Rowing Championships in Poznan.
• Tom Aggar, Great Britain, Arms & shoulders men’s single sculls. Aggar has dominated his boat class since 2007 when he appeared on the scene and took gold at the Munich World Rowing Championships. He is 2008 Paralympic Champion and remained unbeaten right through to becoming the 2009 World Champion when he also set the current World Best Time of 4:51.48.

2009 World Rowing Distinguished Service to International Rowing

• Don Rowlands, New Zealand. Rowlands was the chairman of the 1978 World Championship Organising Committee in New Zealand. Many consider this to be one of the best ever championships. His outstanding performance with the New Zealand organising committee earned him the Olympic Order medal in 1982. He has dedicated decades of service to rowing in Oceania and is an Honorary FISA Council Member. Rowlands is a former New Zealand rower. He has a silver and gold medal from the 1950 and 1951 British Empire Games in the men’s eight and competed in the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne. He is still very actively involved in the sport.
• Hart Perry, United States. Perry is a retired FISA international umpire (1971-1999), long time member of FISA’s youth commission and long serving coach of youth rowing at the legendary Kent School in the United States. Perry has dedicated over 50 years to the sport through his daily work with the US National Rowing Foundation, the Henley Royal Regatta, FISA, and the US Coast Guard Academy during which he always pledged fair play and sportsmanship.
• Magdalena Sarbochova, Czech Republic. Sarbochova was among the first members on FISA’s Women’s Rowing Commission and was chair of that commission for many years. She has dedicated much of her life to women in sport and the development of women’s rowing. She was a former secretary general of the Czechoslovakian Rowing Federation and holds two silver European Championship medals in the women’s pair from 1964 and 1965.