Venue Lake Karapiro Dates 4 November | Location Cambridge, New Zealand | |
The 1978 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held over one week, with finals on 4 November 1978 at Lake Karapiro near Cambridge, New Zealand. Thirty countries were represented at the regatta. In the history of the World Rowing Championships, 1978 was the only year when the lightweight rowing championships were not held in conjunction with the open men and women event; the lightweight events had already been held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in August.
Contents
Background
Lake Karapiro was formed in 1947 through a hydroelectric project on the Waikato River. It was soon recognised as the best rowing venue in New Zealand, and was used for the 1950 British Empire Games. World rowing championships had been held since 1962 by FISA, the International Rowing Federation, and in 1974 New Zealand was provisionally awarded the 1978 world event. Don Rowlands, who had won rowing medals at British Empire and Commonwealth Games in the 1950s and would later became chairman of the 1978 World Rowing Championships organising committee, had lobbied for the event to come to New Zealand; prior to 1978, the event had always been held in the Northern Hemisphere. He found a supporter in Thomas Keller, the president of FISA. There was also some curiosity amongst the rowing fraternity how a small island nation from the South Pacific managed to win gold medals at the 1968 and 1972 Summer Olympics, in men's coxed four and men's eight, respectively. But it was not until the 1976 Summer Olympics that 1978 event was confirmed, which left only two years to organise the event.
The entire event was organised by volunteers; the organising committee had no people in employment. Cyril Hilliard was the secretary of the organising committee. Volunteer labour erected the start and finish towers, and a grandstand; all built with scaffolding. As Rowlands was a marine engineer, he designed the starting pontoon himself. A company donated 13 kit houses, and these were used as offices. Catering for the competitors was done by the New Zealand Army. It is estimated that in total, close to 100,000 spectators attended the four days of racing. Keller called it afterwards "the greatest regatta in living memory". Former British rower Dickie Burnell, who worked at Karapiro as a correspondent for The Times, labelled the event "the greatest show on water".
Thirty countries were represented by their rowers, and this was the largest international sports competition that the country had organised up to that time. The event made a profit of NZ$155,000, which was used to fund a rowing foundation.
Medal summary
Medallists at the 1978 World Rowing Championships were:
Men's lightweight events
In the history of the World Rowing Championships, 1978 was the only year when the lightweight rowing championships were not held in conjunction with the open men and women event. The lightweight championships were held in Copenhagen, Denmark, and the finals were raced on 6 August. In 1978, a fourth boat class was added to the event: Lightweight double scull.
Event codes
This table does not include the lightweight events.
Medal table
The medal table excludes the lightweight events.