1978 World Rowing Championships


The 1978 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 30 October to 5 November at Lake Karapiro near Cambridge, New Zealand. Twenty-eight 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.

Background

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 become 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".
Twenty-eight countries were represented by their rowers in 140 boats, 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 events

In the single sculls and coxless pair boat classes, the first three boats from each heat qualified for the semi-final, and three further semi-finalists were determined via a repechage. In all other boat classes, the first from each heat qualified for the final, with the other finalists determined via a repechage.
Event:Gold:TimeSilver:TimeBronze:Time
M1x
Peter-Michael Kolbe
7:06.01
Rüdiger Reiche
7:08.35
Milorad Stanulov
7:09.82
M2-
Bernd Landvoigt
Jörg Landvoigt
7:00.92
John Roberts
Jim Clark
7:03.68
Dominique Lecointe
Jean-Claude Roussel
7:06.32
M2+
Jürgen Pfeiffer
Gert Uebeler
Olaf Beyer
7:27.43
Karel Mejta Jr
Karel Neffe
Jiří Pták
7:30.49
Adam Tomasiak
Grzegorz Nowak
Ryszard Kubiak
7:33.73
M2x
Frank Hansen
Alf Hansen
6:51.23
Chris Baillieu
Michael Hart
6:53.67
Bruno Saile
Jürg Weitnauer
6:58.43
M4-
Vladimir Predbradzensky
Nikolay Kuznetsov
Valeriy Dolinin
Anatoly Nemtyryov
6:19.25
Siegfried Brietzke
Andreas Decker
Stefan Semmler
Wolfgang Mager
6:19.52
Martin Cross
David Townsend
Ian McNuff
John Beattie
6:26.28
M4+
Ullrich Dießner
Gottfried Döhn
Walter Dießner
Dieter Wendisch
Andreas Gregor
6:30.25
Wolf-Dieter Oschlies
Wolfram Thiem
Frank Schütze
Gabriel Konertz
Helmut Sassenbach
6:31.56
Rumen Khristov
Tsvetan Petkov
Nasko Markov
Ivan Botev
Nenko Dobrev
6:37.06
M4x
Joachim Dreifke
Karl-Heinz Bußert
Martin Winter
Frank Dundr
6:08.94
Christian Marquis
Jean-Raymond Peltier
Roland Thibaut
Roland Weill
6:11.05
Dieter Wiedenmann
Albert Hedderich
Raimund Hörmann
Michael Dürsch
6:11.88
M8+
Matthias Schumann
Ulrich Karnatz
Gerd Sredzki
Andreas Ebert
Friedrich-Wilhelm Ulrich
Harald Jährling
Uwe Dühring
Bernd Höing
Bernd Kaiser
5:54.25
Volker Sauer
Klaus Roloff
Fritz Schuster
Heribert Karches
Werner Hellwig
Winfried Ringwald
Thomas Scholl
Diethelm Maxrath
Hartmut Wenzel
5:55.17
Mark James
Greg Johnston
Dave Rodger
Des Lock
Ross Lindstrom
David Lindstrom
Ivan Sutherland
Noel Mills
Alan Cotter
5:57.16

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 1978 FISA Lightweight Championships were held in Copenhagen, Denmark, during August.

Women's events

There were six boats nominated in the coxless pair and they went to the final without heats. In all other boat classes, the winner of each heat qualified for the final and all other finalists were determined via a repechage.
Event:Gold:TimeSilver:TimeBronze:Time
W1x
Christine Scheiblich
4:12.49
Anna Kondrachina
4:14.43
Mariann Ambrus
4:16.21
W2-
Cornelia Klier
Ute Steindorf
4:02.65
Elizabeth Craig
Susan Antoft
4:02.87
Joke Dierdorp
Karin Abma
4:05.38
W2x
Svetla Otsetova
Zdravka Yordanova
4:01.94
Ludmila Parphjoonova
Eleonora Kaminskaitė
4:04.19
Elizabeth Hills-O'Leary
Lisa Hansen Stone
4:04.77
W4+
Kersten Neisser
Angelika Noack
Ute Skorupski
Marita Sandig
Kirsten Wenzel
3:48.47
Carol Brown
Anita DeFrantz
Cozema Crawford
Nancy Storrs
Hollis Hatton
3:52.42
Elena Oprea
Florica Dospinescu
Florica Silaghi
Georgeta Militaru-Mașca
Aneta Matei
3:53.92
W4x+
Anka Bakova
Dolores Nakova
Rositsa Spasova
Rumelyana Boncheva
Anka Georgieva
3:31.16
Sabine Reuter
Petra Finke
Veronika Walterfang
Anne Dickmann
Kathrien Plückhahn
3:32.58

Yelena Khloptseva
Olga Vasilchenko
Nadesjda Kozotshkina
Nadezhda Chernyshyova
3:33.30
W8+
Valentina Zhulina
Maria Paziun
Nina Antoniuk
Tatyana Bunjak
Nadezhda Dergatchenko
Nina Umanets
Elena Tereshina
Olga Pivovarova
Nina Frolova
3:22.00
Silvia Arndt
Renate Neu
Dagmar Bauer
Gabriele Kühn
Petra Köhler
Henrietta Ebert
Birgit Schütz
Christiane Köpke
Marina Wilke
3:26.12
Joy Fera
Christine Neuland
Gail Cort
Monica Draeger
Elizabeth Jacklin
Kimberley Gordon
Dolores Young
Tricia Smith
Trudy Flynn
3:28.34

Event codes

New Zealand officials had expected their men to win three or four medals, and Rowlands stated that he expected the men's eight to win gold. In the end, the bronze won by New Zealand's eight was the host's only medal. This table does not include the lightweight events.
single scullspair coxed pairdouble scullsfour coxed fourquad scullsquad sculls eight
Men'sM1xM2-M2+M2xM4-M4+M4xM8+
Women'sW1xW2-W2xW4+W4x+W8+

Medal table

The medal table excludes the lightweight events.