The Rowing World turns to Asia
2005 World Rowing Championships
Presented by BearingPoint
Gifu, Japan – 28 August to 4 September 2005
Over 800 athletes in 319 crews from 56 nations have been
entered in the 2005 World Rowing Championships of the International
Rowing Federation, FISA. The Championships, which take place
from 28 August to 4 September in Gifu Prefecture, Japan, will
not only include the 23 traditional boat classes, but also
three adaptive rowing events which will be raced on 2 and
3 September.
The highest number of crews has been entered by the United
States, with 21 crews, followed closely by Germany (20 crews),
Italy (19 crews) and Great Britain (18 crews). Crews from
eleven Asian countries have also been entered including Hong
Kong China, Indonesia, India, Korea, Philippines, Palestine,
Singapore, Thailand, Uzbekistan as well as host country Japan.
Japan has entered a remarkable 15 crews. In the individual
boat classes, the highest numbers of entries come in the men’s
single scull and the lightweight men’s double sculls,
with 25 boats entered in each of these two boat classes.
The high quality line-ups include women’s single favourite
Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus, yet unbeaten in 2005. The four
time Olympian Karsten will be up against this season’s
top contenders in the single, Czech Republic’s Mirka
Knapkova, Sophie Balmary of France (second in Lucerne) as
well as Australia’s Kerry Hore, who recently moved to
the single from the women’s quad.
The men’s single looks to be once again the race of
the greats, with Olympic champion Olaf Tufte of Norway, Germany’s
Marcel Hacker, and the Czech Republic’s newcomer Ondrej
Synek contending for the World Champion spot. Also worth a
mention is this year’s Under 23 Champion in the single
Sjoerd Hamburger from the Netherlands who, with two World
Cup events under his belt this year, is attempting his first
go at the Senior World Rowing Championships.
With four of the top 2004 Olympic nations, including three
of the top four crews, the men’s pair is set to be a
very interesting event. Australia, who took gold in Athens
have replaced the legendary Ginn and Tomkins pair and come
back with Christian Ryan and Karsten Fosterling. They will
be up against Athens silver medallists, the Croatian Skelin
brothers, Athens bronze medallists Donovan Cech and Ramon
Di Clemente of South Africa and 4th place in Athens Nathan
Twaddle and George Bridgewater of New Zealand.
These are the first World Rowing Championships since the
International Paralympic Committee announced the inclusion
of adaptive rowing in the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games. Entries
this year include a total of 15 crews totalling 42 rowers.
The event takes place at the Nagaragawa International Regatta
Course centrally situated at the very heart of Japan, two
hours from Tokyo, one from Osaka and 20 minutes from Nagoya
by bullet train. The 10 lane, buoyed fresh water course is
on the Nagara River and was first opened in 1998. This is
the first time since the 1964 Tokyo Olympics that an international
rowing event has been in Japan and the first time the World
Rowing Championships have been hosted by an Asia nation.
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