Finalists for the best in rowing chosen

The Thomas Keller medal nominations 2007 has been narrowed down to five finalists. The selected athletes include France’s Jean-Christophe Rolland, Mike McKay of Australia, Constantina Burcica of Romania, New Zealand’s Rob Waddell and Katrin Rutschow-Stomporowski of Germany.

The Thomi is the highest medal awarded in rowing and goes to recently retired rowers, recognising an exceptional rowing career as well as exemplary sportsmanship.

Open to public nomination for the second year, this year produced a consequent list with most of the nominees showing outstanding credentials. Currently Rolland serves on FISA’s Athletes Commission after retiring from international rowing in 2000 following a gold medal performance at the Sydney Olympics. McKay was part of the legendary Australian Oarsome Foursome that won gold at the Atlanta Olympics. He continued on to be part of the Sydney silver medal eight and then gave it a last blast as a 40 year old to win bronze at Athens.

Romania’s Burcica has won every lightweight women’s double Olympic gold since its inception at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics as well as earning silver as a heavyweight at the Barcelona Olympics. Waddell helped stimulate resurgence in New Zealand rowing after his gold medal win at the Sydney Olympics. He has often been pointed to as the inspiration behind many of New Zealand’s current successful rowers. Rutschow-Stomporowski had a long and illustrious career that began as a junior medallist and ended 13 years later with Olympic gold in the single in Athens.

The nominations were presented to the FISA Joint Commission Meeting over the weekend in Madrid, Spain. All council and commission members were eligible to vote. The five finalists will now be put forward to the Thomas Keller Committee who will determine the winner.

The recipient will be announced in early July with the award being presented at the final Rowing World Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland on 15 July.

Leading up to the announcement of the winner, World Rowing will be profiling in detail the final five.

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