FISA 2010 Congress

FISA, the International Rowing Federation, held its annual Congress during the 2010 World Rowing Championships in New Zealand.

Delegates representing 44 member national rowing federations were present as well as bid committees and future event organising committees promoting their respective venues and events as well as several observers.

The Congress is the annual meeting of FISA members and the occasion for FISA to present the annual reports to their member national federations. Each area of activity, including the financial report, was presented to the members as part of their Congress Agenda papers.

Three major events were attributed to the candidate cities present:

• The 2013 World Rowing U23 Championships go to Linz/Ottensheim in Austria,
  The 2013 World Rowing Junior Championships will be held in Trakai, Lithuania and
  The 2014 World Rowing Junior Championships are attributed to Hamburg, Germany

Other items on the agenda included new membership of the Maldives, bringing the total number of FISA member federations to 131.

The Congress voted to appoint or re-appoint the following members to the FISA Council.

New members elected to the FISA Council this year are Tone Pahle from Norway and Patricia Lambert from Belgium. Pahle replaces Peter Morrison, Chair of the Masters Commission who has chosen to take early retirement from his position. Lambert takes on the role of Chair of the Media and Promotions Commission and replaces Arno Boes of Germany.

All other Council members we re-elected to their positions.

• Events Commission: Mike Tanner (HKG)
  Umpiring: Patrick Rombaut (BEL)
  Competitive Rowing: John Boultbee (AUS)
  Women’s Rowing: Tricia Smith (CAN)
  Adaptive Rowing: Fay Ho (HKG)

The Congress discussed the schedules of the World Rowing Junior Championships which will be held at Dorney Lake in 2011 and the World Rowing Under 23 Championships. Finals of these Championships were held over two days this year and will continue in 2011 with two days of finals.

Peter Morrison, Chair of the Masters Commission announced the FISA Council’s decision to award the 2013 World Rowing Masters Regatta to Varese, Italy. Varese were among five bidders for this event.

The next Ordinary Congress will be held at the end of the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia on 5 September 2011.