Sporting News and Events

The 2010 World Rowing Championships held in New Zealand are the highlight of the annual rowing calendar, with host nation New Zealand and sporting giant USA expected to make a strong showing.

The German shock of 2009

Germany stunned the world rowing community, by dominating the 2009 championships, winning eight medals in total with four gold, one silver and three bronze. The nation has always been capable, yet underperformers blossomed, while the usually strong New Zealand and US teams were relegated to second and third place respectively.
The pressure’s on New Zealand

Now, with the 2010 World Rowing Championships being held in New Zealand, the individual rowers will have the cocktail of added support and pressure coming from the home crowd. World record holder and four time world champ single sculler Mahé Drysdale is expected to lead from the front and dominate the sport he’s made his own over the last five years.

The US factor

The United States, who have the biggest sporting budget of any nation competing in the 2010 Rowing World Championship world and have still not reached their full potential in rowing – even though they’re a top three nation – are poised to make a play for victory with the M2+ team of Troy Kepper, Henrik Rummel and Marcus McElhenney expected to repeat their 2009 success.

Beating the competition

One of rowing’s hallmark’s is that many different nations are good at a specific discipline, meaning that for the aforementioned top three teams to put any distance between themselves and their competitors, they have to compete strongly in those categories. This is especially true in large group races with multiple rowers in each team who require high levels of collective fitness, which any team with the right focus and training can achieve.

Still, though, with home support, recent form and national pride at stake, it is very difficult to predict any nation but New Zealand will come out tops at the 2010 World Rowing Championships.