By Michelle Pickles
It is exactly a year today until the World Rowing Championships will get underway at Lake Karapiro.
Cambridge came out to acknowledge New Zealand’s world champion rowers and celebrate the 365 day countdown to a regatta which will be highly competitive even before it begins.
“Having the World Champs here for us is just like another massive bonus for us, so there's going to be a lot of pressure to get into the crews.. And I know that there’s going to be a lot of disappointed people not making it to be able to row here,” says world champion Eric Murray.
Lake Karapiro last hosted the worlds back in 1978. The event was widely regarded as one of the best championships ever.
Organisers know they have a lot to live up to.
“It’s huge pressure constantly. Head of old organising is actually on our organising committee as a patron and he ribs me every day. They drank 1.1 million cans of beer in 1978, so we’ve got a long way to go to sort of satisfy that,” says Tom Mayo, Lake Karapiro 2010 CEO.
But they are expecting a huge economic impact.
“We've done an initial $16 million injected into local community, but I actually think it will be more than that,” says Mr Mayo.
Kiwi rowers have put New Zealand on the map in recent years, including four gold medals and a bronze at this year’s Worlds in Poland.
Next year’s build up will be a little different though, with the championships two months later than usual.
“It’s a longer season and we're going to have to structure that accordingly with coming back early from Europe… going to be a new thing for us,” says world champion Hamish Bond.
The rowers will begin their countdown when they get back on the water on December 1.
3 News