Karapiro World Rowing Champs earns international approval

“It will not take another 32 years until we come back,” he promised, referring to the gap between this year’s World Rowing Championships and when it was last in New Zealand.

The four days of finals produced 27 new World Champions in 14 Olympic boat classes, eight international events and five adaptive rowing events.

Top of the medal table for 2010 is Great Britain who took a total of 11 medals, including five gold. Host country New Zealand came away with 10 medals of which three were gold, three silver and four were bronze.

The Team Trophy went to the British Team who topped the trophy points with a total of 99. Germany followed with 84 points and New Zealand, in third, earned 76 points.

This event capped another milestone by setting a new record for public attendance with 66,771 spectators coming to Lake Karapiro over the eight day event. The record was previously held by Munich, Germany when 65,600 spectators attended the 2007 World Rowing Championships.

Spectators were supplied with a horde of exciting races topped by the showdown between New Zealand and Great Britain in the men’s pair. The two boats went neck-and-neck to the line bringing the crowd to their feet as Eric Murray and Hamish Bond of New Zealand took gold in the last few strokes. The long winning streak of Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus in the women’s single sculls was finally broken when pocket-sized Frida Svensson of Sweden out-paced the seemingly unbeatable Karsten.

This event concludes the 2010 World Rowing season. The 2011 World Rowing Championships will be held from 28 August to 4 September in Bled, Slovenia. The 2011 Samsung Rowing World Cup season begins on 27 May 2011 in Munich, Germany.

Full race reports, photos, videos, results are available from www.worldrowing.com.