Weather Proves Toughest Test for London Olympic Rowing

(ATR) The international rowing federation FISA tells Around the Ringsthe biggest issue facing the rowing and canoe sprint events at the 2012 Olympics is out of anyone's hands.

Mike Tanner, head of FISA's events commission, told ATRaside from a few downpours at the ongoing Junior World Championships, the test event has gone "very well" in the historic area of Eton Lake, outside of London.

Tanner admitted weather was a concern, especially after enduring a complete day of showers on the third day of competition.

"Heavy rain will be an issue for us. As I understand it, the policy is no covered grandstands, and for us that creates a real issue if we have 15,000 people sitting in a grandstand with it chucking down rain for four days," he said.

"With the media working in the grandstand with no covers, it will not be a very pleasant sight ‒ It totally destroys the experience of the event. So for us that’s a major issue, and we’ve said that to LOCOG not just here but previously.

"We accept we are an outdoor sport, but we do have a lot of contingency plans."

Such contingencies include the presence of the Met Office, who are helping forecast the test event as well as next summer's Olympics.

"We get three-times-a-day forecasts on an hourly basis for the current day and then a three-day thrice-hourly basis, and then a five-day one. And we consult with them as well based on that, so if we want to look and make a decision about tomorrow we can talk to them and get their expert advice," Tanner explained.

Opened in 2006 and privately owned by Eton College, the 2,200m eight-lane purpose-built rowing lake does appear to face a transport issue, especially considering the nearest Olympic venue is Earls Court (volleyball) 39km away. However, Tanner assured ATR that FISA is already testing the travel issue.

"We have a particular situation as we sometimes do in rowing, in that we are a long way from the Olympic Village," he said. "So we’ll have a sub-village for the athletes at Royal Holloway, so to test that all the junior athletes and FISA people are staying there now, testing that ourselves and that’s a 30-minute travel time which is perfectly acceptable."

Tanner added that he has every confidence in the work beingdone by LOCOG to ensure the public transport is running smoothly to get spectators to such a remote venue.

LOCOG rowing manager Ann-Louise Morgan echoed Tanner's point, adding that numerous shuttles would take Games-goers from train stations and car parks to the venue.

Morgan also told ATR about how quickly her team was able to adapt to unpredictable occurrences when the commentary for the web stream of the races cut out Thursday morning due to the insulation on the wiring melting overnight.

"We were without commentary for about an hour," she said, explaining that technicians were able to replace the web commentary with TV commentary, providing a useful lesson learned for next summer.

"It’s not ideal for us, but it’s the kind ofthing we want to test this year, so we know next year we can sort things out very quickly if needed."

When asked if she were completely happy with the layout of the test event, Morgan answered neither yes nor no.

"As an event organizer you are always looking to improve things, and after this we will look at the whole competition and question ourselves along with the international federation delegate to make sure if we are making any tweaks, they will be absolutely right for the athletes," she said.

"Some of the locations are slightly different. The rest area will look different and the boat builders will be in a different position. All the facilities are here, but after this we will be able to review and see if we need to move things around a bit for the Games."

Morgan also told ATRabout how even just halfway through the competition, she was already receiving positive feedback from the athletes.

"They usually tell you when you’re doing things wrong, not when you’re doing things right, so we will see what happens at the end of the tournament," she said.

"We will be asking athletes to fill in a questionnaire and then we will collate those responses and take those into consideration for our review for our plans for 2012."

One bit of praise came from Great Britain’s own Oleg Isaev, who said "It’s a great Olympic venue. I tried out rowing as a new sport in the junior 14s here, and I think this is a great venue."

Written in Eton Dorney by Christian Radnedge.