Seville's place in rowing development

These waters are far from unfamiliar to regular rowing activity. In fact Seville’s High Performance Rowing Centre, based just beyond the point where crews cross the finish line of the 2000m regatta course, is one of the most popular locations for those rowers in search of great rowing water and weather conditions. It is a place where some of the world’s greatest rowers come to train.

Sweden’s Frida Svensson is a regular on these waters and it’s not uncommon for German and Dutch rowers to come here to experience the great training conditions. Read any rowing autobiography and you’re almost guaranteed to see a mention of this city-center training facility. The course is also a favourite because the warm water is conducive to setting blistering fast times, just as was done at the 2002 World Rowing Championships when so many World Best Times were broken.

The High Performance Rowing Centre is not just a popular place for the fastest rowers in the world. The centre plays, and has done so for many years, a crucial role in FISA’s development programme, bringing athletes from rowing’s developing nations with potential to one centralised base to train. FISA development camps have, for over a decade, been run by Penny Chuter and Thor Nilsen. According to FISA’s development manager, Sheila Stephens Desbans, the core principles behind the camps are to promote good training practices and technique, exposure to an international environment and offer a chance for athletes to mix and train with athletes of different levels.

The dream of creating a facility for rowers on the Guadalquivir was born in the mid-1980’s. Former Spanish national team coach, Carlos Molina is the attending director of the centre and was one of the key visionaries behind its development. Molina says that he never envisaged the centre becoming such an important international training location, but rather just imagined the facility would be used for national training and competition. It was the centre’s former director and co-visionary, Jose Munoz, who dreamt big for the waterside facility.

Seeing so many different nations boating from the centre quickly became Molina’s favourite part of being involved here. Rowers from the sport’s development countries like Paraguay, Uruguay, Tunisia, and Singapore have been involved in camps here.

Stephens Desbans says that there is no magical result from taking part in these camps – they do not guarantee success – but when given time there is much proof that being involved in the development setup in Seville can produce great results. Take for instance the South African team. In the early 2000’s their athletes spent much time training at the Spanish centre. Although it did not result in an immediate medal haul, the knowledge acquired by the athletes and coaches was passed down to newcomers to the team and their gold in the lightweight men’s four at the London 2012 Olympic rowing regatta can surely be partly attributed to this.

Ireland’s small group of lightweights of the same era also benefited from the great conditions of the course and the structures oftraining in an organised camp environment. Lightweight single sculler Sam Lynch arrived in Seville determined and eager to soak up the knowledge coach Nilsen could pass on to  him. This was a special place for Lynch as the water on which he learned so much of his trade and also where he won his first World Championship title in 2002.

Of all the development athletes who have travelled from afar to use this facility, perhaps two-time Olympian Camila Vargas Polomo has found it the most special. The El Salvador sculler arrived here under the guidance of coach Osvaldo Borchi for a camp and has since made this city and the rowing course her home. “She lives in Seville, her boyfriend is from Seville and she rows in my club,” Molina says. “Stories like this make you feel as though you are part of a big family.”

As the Rio 2016 Olympic rowing regatta beckons, Seville High Performance Centre’s role in the development of future Olympians will be as poignant and important as ever.