World Rowing e-Magazine, Autumn/Winter 2005

A Japanese spectator / Une spectatrice japonaise

In a fitting start to the Olympic cycle as we head towards Beijing 2008, Japan made it a first for Asia when it hosted the 2005 World Rowing Championships at the end of August. Japan's Gifu prefecture became the home for the best rowers in the world as they discovered the art of origami, endured high humidity and flew down six lanes of untouched-by-typhoon waters.

A steady current improved racing speeds and World Best times, however these new World Best times were later disallowed after it was determined that the water flow, although equal in all lanes, was too strong.

and also pushed Olympic Champion Olaf Tufte of Norway back into second. Meanwhile the women’s single delivered no surprises when the heavily-medalled Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus barely >>

Fitting luckily in between two typhoons, the Championships began with the threat of typhoon Mawar which saw the entire course removed and replaced all in the space of a couple of days. The typhoon luckily kept its distance delaying racing by just one day.

No one can refute the remarkable performance by seven New Zealanders. On the first day of finals Mahe Drysdale (men’s single), Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater (men’s pair), Nicky Coles and Juliette Haigh (women’s pair) and Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell (women’s double) cleaned up four World Championship titles in just 45 minutes. This unprecedented haul by one country had not been seen since the days of East Germany’s rowing dominance 30 years ago.