FISA Congress votes on changes to Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic rowing programmes

11 February 2017 – Two big decisions were taken at the FISA Extraordinary Congress in Tokyo on Saturday morning.

Para-rowers will now race over 2,000m instead of 1,000m. This will be the case at all World Rowing events as well as the Paralympic Games. The move to 2,000m racing for Para-rowing is a signal of further integration of Para disciplines at the top level of international competition.

The FISA Congress delegates, made up of representatives nominated by national rowing federations, were presented with two proposals that would create a gender equal programme at the Olympic Games.

The proposal, put forward by the FISA Council, will see the lightweight men's four dropped from the Olympic programme to be replaced by the women's four. This attracted 94 votes, as opposed to the 67 votes cast in favour of an alternative proposal that would have seen the openweight men's four replaced by a lightweight women's four.

FISA, rowing's world governing body, will now recommend 14 boat classes to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for the Tokyo Olympic Programme, which will deliver gender equity, bring the women’s four back into the Games and hopefully ensure the future of lightweight Olympic rowing.

Annamarie Phelps CBE, Chairman of British Rowing said: "These decisions have been hotly debated with emotions running high at times. We welcome both outcomes as the right ones for our sport at this time."

Sir David Tanner, British Rowing’s Performance Director said: "With these good outcomes for our sport, our senior rowers and coaches can now focus on the job in hand – producing strong results in this year’s World Championships as the first step on the road to Tokyo 2020."

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Notes to Editors:

About British Rowing

British Rowing, as the governing body for the sport, is responsible for the development of rowing in England and the training and selection of rowers to represent Great Britain.

The GB Rowing Team is the high-performance arm of British Rowing. The Team has a proud history as one of GB’s most successful Olympic sports producing World and Olympic Champions from across the UK. The squad is supported by the National Lottery Sports Fund.

Around a quarter of a million people row in England on a monthly basis, according to the latest Sport England Active People Survey (APS 9 Oct 2014 – Sept 2015, aged 14+).

British Rowing’s mission is to lead, enable and inspire excellence in rowing at all levels. Our vision, through rowing, is to promote the positive impact of sport by providing an enjoyable experience for all participants while upholding our position as a leading rowing nation.

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Sophie Galasinski

Head of Communications and Marketing | British Rowing

Main Office: 020 8237 6700

Direct Line: 020 8237 6718

Mobile: 07818 576 133

Address: 6 Lower Mall, London W6 9DJ

britishrowing.org

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