The FISA (International Rowing Federation) Council announced in Lausanne, Switzerland that their choice to host the 2009 World Rowing Junior Championships is Gainesville, GA. The Junior Worlds have never before been held in the United States, and only once in North America. Athletes under the age of eighteen are eligible to compete in the Championships, an ideal opportunity for future Olympians to experience world-class competition and conditions.
The Council ultimately chose Gainesville over Brive, France primarily because "Gainesville, which had staged the 1996 Olympic Games, was much further along with the necessary infrastructure for a World level regatta." Gainesville "has also recently staged a major international event; the 2003 World Canoe/Kayak Championships, which tested the whole infrastructure and operations."
Additionally, Lake Lanier has also held a broad spectrum of regattas, some with as many as 5000 rowers. The club hosts thousands of collegiate rowers for Spring Break Training, when the "Lanier Sprints Regatta" is also held. Upcoming events are the GA Games on July 16th and the "Head of the Lanier", October 15th.
The Gainesville Bid Committee had a major advantage with $1.4 million of infrastructure improvements to the venue at Clark's Bridge Park already completed in 2003. In contrast, the competition "has the strong support of local and regional governments", but the Council expressed concern that "there are some fairly major infrastructure modifications to take place."
While the floating grandstands put in place for the '96 Olympics at Lanier had been disassembled and taken down after the event, the boathouse and finish tower were left in place and are leased by Lake Lanier Rowing Club. The Albano buoy system was retained by the rowing club, which also purchased the Olympic fleet of launches with the help of local private donations.
The 2003 improvements added permanent stone grandstands, additional service and concession buildings, and a landscaped plaza that generally is used for team and vendor tents. While Lanier retained the start platform and tower from the Olympics, the main infrastructure addition for 2009 will be a new state of the art start platform and tower.
In the end, "the [FISA] Council agreed that, the stronger venue and organizing committee for the staging of the 2009 World Junior Championships&was Gainesville." The Council will present Gainesville to the FISA Congress in September for confirmation.
Candidate venues were visited in May by a FISA inspection team, consisting of FISA Executive Director Matt Smith, Events Coordinator Daniels Oronova, and Marketing/Communications Manager Marion Gallimore. While Smith and Gallimore flew on to Beijing to oversee the initial digging of the course for 2008 and then to Japan, Oronova took advantage of the opportunity to row on the Olympic Course, where she had competed in '96 for Bulgaria.
Final bid presentations were made to the FISA Council by the bid cities at a FISA meeting held in Eton, England in conjunction with the World Cup. Glenn Merry of USRowing (who astonished the Eton LOC by volunteering to work Control Commission when not assisting the US men's pair), Annette Forster of Lake Lanier Rowing Club and Jim Mathis of Gainesville represented the US Bid Committee at the FISA meeting held in Eton, England in conjunction with the World Cup.
They were pleased to meet Sir Matthew Pinsent, who recalled his epic final at Lanier with Sir Steven Redgrave. Apparently both Pinsent's and Redgrave's parents still correspond with their host families from Gainesville. Both men raced in the Legends Four (a replay of the Sydney final to raise money for tsunami relief) at Eton. Pinsent was awarded rowing's highest honor, the Thomas Keller Award at the end of the event for his lifetime outstanding achievements. Sir Matt joked that he did not win his first or his last rowing race, both of which were held at Eton. (He seems to have won most everything in between!) Pinsent is an Eton alumnus and has been very active in supporting the development of the venue and Redgrave has been a strong supporter of Eton's 05 World Cup and 06 World Championship efforts, as well as the London 2012 Bid.
While focus of the FISA decision for the 2009 Junior Worlds was primarily infrastructure and organization, Lanier hopes that FISA also considered the impact that holding an event in the Americas might help increase participation from South, Central and North American federations. The prospect of a world championship in the United States will be a boost to junior rowing in the US and a great recruiting tool.
Henry Kannapell chaired Lake Lanier's Bid Committee of John Ferriss LLRC Executive Director, Annette Forster, David Markey, John Martiniere, Jim Mathis, Duane Schlereth, and Phil Sutton.