The International Rowing Federation FISA today announced that the start of the 2005 World Rowing Championships in Gifu, Japan will be postponed for 48 hours due to typhoon Mawar. The Championships will now take place over six days from 30 August to 4 September 2005.
Typhoon Mawar will, according to weather forecasts, touch the Japanese mainland tonight, 24 August, and create unrowable weather conditions through to 28 August. The whole infrastructure of the regatta course is now nearly all removed from the flood plain in expectation of the high winds of up to 25 meters per second. All boats are being removed and stored in permanent facilities. There will be no rowing on the water for the more than 800 rowers over the next three days but the organising committee has put in place 114 rowing ergometers which will allow the rowers to continue to train.
Each nation has been alloted a one-hour time slot in which to train during the day, so the ergs are constantly spinning. Additionally, most of the crews go to the course each day for lunch, resulting in a couple roundtrip 80-minute shuttle rides to a) erg, and b) eat. Additionally, although many crews did get on the water in the past 24 hours, course conditions over the past few days have been very poor, so crews have had very little quality training time since arrival. Navigating these "down" days will be at least as challenging and critical as would have been normal training and racing.
The regatta programme has been condensed from the usual eight days to six days. The first two days of qualifying heats will be compressed into one day, Tuesday, 30 August. The second round called "repechages" will also be compressed into one day on Wednesday, 31 August 2005. The final four days of semi-finals and finals will, for the moment, be unchanged. The regatta "Draw for Lanes" has also been moved 48 hours to 15:00 hrs on Sunday, 28 August.
FISA and the organisers have prepared for difficult conditions after an unusually high number of typhoons hit Japan in the months of July and August 2004. From 2000 to 2003, only two typhoons were observed in July and two in August while last year, 2004, a total of five typhoons during July and August hit Japan. During the ten years before 2000, there were very few, if any, typhoons in this period of time. FISA with the organising committee published a contingency scenario document to all teams well in advance to prepare them for this possibility so there are no surprises here.
The event takes place at the Nagaragawa International Regatta Course centrally situated at the very heart of Japan, two hours from Tokyo, one from Osaka and 20 minutes from Nagoya by bullet train. The 10 lane, buoyed fresh water course is on the Nagara River and was first opened in 1998. This is the first time since the 1964 Tokyo Olympics that an international rowing event has been in Japan and the first time the World Rowing Championships have been hosted by an Asia nation.