# 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

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 World 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 a grandstand; all built with scaffolding. As Rowlands was a marine engineer, he designed the starting pontoon himself and the construction was carried out by James Hill, a former Olympic rower who was a joiner by trade. Hill also built the start and finish towers. 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: | Time | Silver: | Time | Bronze: | Time |
| M1x | West Germany Peter-Michael Kolbe | 7:06.01 | East Germany Rüdiger Reiche | 7:08.35 | Yugoslavia Milorad Stanulov | 7:09.82 |
| M2- | East Germany Bernd Landvoigt (b) Jörg Landvoigt (s) | 7:00.92 | Great Britain John Roberts (b) Jim Clark (s) | 7:03.68 | France Dominique Lecointe (b) Jean-Claude Roussel (s) | 7:06.32 |
| M2+ | East Germany Jürgen Pfeiffer (b) Gert Uebeler (s) Olaf Beyer (cox) | 7:27.43 | Czechoslovakia Karel Mejta Jr (b) Karel Neffe (s) Jiří Pták (cox) | 7:30.49 | Poland Adam Tomasiak (b) Grzegorz Nowak (s) Ryszard Kubiak (cox) | 7:33.73 |
| M2x | Norway Frank Hansen (b) Alf Hansen (s) | 6:51.23 | Great Britain Chris Baillieu (b) Michael Hart (s) | 6:53.67 | Switzerland Bruno Saile (b) Jürg Weitnauer (s) | 6:58.43 |
| M4- | Soviet Union Vladimir Predbradzensky (b) Nikolay Kuznetsov (2) Valeriy Dolinin (3) Anatoly Nemtyryov (s) | 6:19.25 | East Germany Siegfried Brietzke (b) Andreas Decker (2) Stefan Semmler (3) Wolfgang Mager (s) | 6:19.52 | Great Britain Martin Cross (b) David Townsend (2) Ian McNuff (3) John Beattie (s) | 6:26.28 |
| M4+ | East Germany Ullrich Dießner (b) Gottfried Döhn (2) Walter Dießner (3) Dieter Wendisch (s) Andreas Gregor (cox) | 6:30.25 | West Germany Wolf-Dieter Oschlies (b) Wolfram Thiem (2) Frank Schütze (3) Gabriel Konertz (s) Helmut Sassenbach (cox) | 6:31.56 | Bulgaria Rumen Khristov (b) Tsvetan Petkov (2) Nasko Markov (3) Ivan Botev (s) Nenko Dobrev (cox) | 6:37.06 |
| M4x | East Germany Joachim Dreifke (b) Karl-Heinz Bußert (2) Martin Winter (3) Frank Dundr (s) | 6:08.94 | France Christian Marquis (b) Jean-Raymond Peltier (2) Roland Thibaut (3) Roland Weill (s) | 6:11.05 | West Germany Dieter Wiedenmann (b) Albert Hedderich (2) Raimund Hörmann (3) Michael Dürsch (s) | 6:11.88 |
| M8+ | East Germany Matthias Schumann (b) Ulrich Karnatz (2) Gerd Sredzki (3) Andreas Ebert (4) Friedrich-Wilhelm Ulrich (5) Harald Jährling (6) Uwe Dühring (7) Bernd Höing (s) Bernd Kaiser (cox) | 5:54.25 | West Germany Volker Sauer (b) Klaus Roloff (2) Fritz Schuster (3) Heribert Karches (4) Werner Hellwig (5) Winfried Ringwald (6) Thomas Scholl (7) Diethelm Maxrath (s) Hartmut Wenzel (cox) | 5:55.17 | New Zealand Mark James (b) Greg Johnston (2) Dave Rodger (3) Des Lock (4) Ross Lindstrom (5) David Lindstrom (6) Ivan Sutherland (7) Noel Mills (s) Alan Cotter (cox) | 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: | Time | Silver: | Time | Bronze: | Time |
| W1x | East Germany Christine Scheiblich | 4:12.49 | Soviet Union Anna Kondrachina | 4:14.43 | Hungary Mariann Ambrus | 4:16.21 |
| W2- | East Germany Cornelia Klier (b) Ute Steindorf (s) | 4:02.65 | Canada Elizabeth Craig (b) Susan Antoft (s) | 4:02.87 | Netherlands Joke Dierdorp (b) Karin Abma (s) | 4:05.38 |
| W2x | Bulgaria Svetla Otsetova (b) Zdravka Yordanova (s) | 4:01.94 | Soviet Union Ludmila Parphjoonova (b) Eleonora Kaminskaitė (s) | 4:04.19 | United States Elizabeth Hills-O'Leary (b) Lisa Hansen Stone (s) | 4:04.77 |
| W4+ | East Germany Kersten Neisser (b) Angelika Noack (2) Ute Skorupski (3) Marita Sandig (s) Kirsten Wenzel (cox) | 3:48.47 | United States Carol Brown (b) Anita DeFrantz (2) Cozema Crawford (3) Nancy Storrs (s) Hollis Hatton (cox) | 3:52.42 | Romania Elena Oprea (b) Florica Dospinescu (2) Florica Silaghi (3) Georgeta Militaru-Mașca (s) Aneta Matei (cox) | 3:53.92 |
| W4x+ | Bulgaria Anka Bakova (b) Dolores Nakova (2) Rositsa Spasova (3) Rumelyana Boncheva (s) Anka Georgieva (cox) | 3:31.16 | West Germany Sabine Reuter (b) Petra Finke (2) Veronika Walterfang (3) Anne Dickmann (s) Kathrien Plückhahn (cox) | 3:32.58 | Soviet Union Reet Palm (b) Yelena Khloptseva (2) Olga Vasilchenko (3) Nadesjda Kozotshkina (s) Nadezhda Chernyshyova (cox) | 3:33.30 |
| W8+ | Soviet Union Valentina Zhulina (b) Maria Paziun (2) Nina Antoniuk (3) Tatyana Bunjak (4) Nadezhda Dergatchenko (5) Nina Umanets (6) Elena Tereshina (7) Olga Pivovarova (s) Nina Frolova (cox) | 3:22.00 | East Germany Silvia Arndt (b) Renate Neu (2) Dagmar Bauer (3) Gabriele Kühn (4) Petra Köhler (5) Henrietta Ebert (6) Birgit Schütz (7) Christiane Köpke (s) Marina Wilke (cox) | 3:26.12 | Canada Joy Fera (b) Christine Neuland (2) Gail Cort (3) Monica Draeger (4) Elizabeth Jacklin (5) Kimberley Gordon (6) Dolores Young (7) Tricia Smith (s) Trudy Flynn (cox) | 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 sculls | pair (coxless) | coxed pair | double sculls | four (coxless) | coxed four | quad sculls | quad sculls (coxed) | eight (coxed) |
| Men's | M1x | M2- | M2+ | M2x | M4- | M4+ | M4x | | M8+ |
| Women's | W1x | W2- | | W2x | | W4+ | | W4x+ | W8+ |

### Medal table

The medal table excludes the lightweight events.
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 | East Germany (GDR) | 8 | 3 | 0 | 11 |
| 2 | Soviet Union (URS) | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| 3 | Bulgaria (BUL) | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 4 | West Germany (FRG) | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
| 5 | Norway (NOR) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 6 | Great Britain (GBR) | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 7 | Canada (CAN) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 7 | France (FRA) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 7 | United States (USA) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 10 | Czechoslovakia (TCH) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 11 | Hungary (HUN) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 11 | Netherlands (NED) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 11 | New Zealand (NZL) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 11 | Poland (POL) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 11 | Romania (ROM) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 11 | Switzerland (SUI) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 11 | Yugoslavia (YUG) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (17 entries) | Totals (17 entries) | 14 | 14 | 14 | 42 |

## Finals

The Soviet Union were disqualified in the final of the women's coxed four.
| Event | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th |
| M1x | West Germany | East Germany | Yugoslavia | Soviet Union | Argentina | Finland |
| M2- | East Germany | Great Britain | France | Netherlands | Ireland | United States |
| M2+ | East Germany | Czechoslovakia | Poland | West Germany | Bulgaria | Ireland |
| M2x | Norway | Great Britain | Switzerland | East Germany | United States | New Zealand |
| M4- | Soviet Union | East Germany | Great Britain | France | Czechoslovakia | West Germany |
| M4+ | East Germany | West Germany | Bulgaria | United States | Australia | New Zealand |
| M4x | East Germany | France | West Germany | Czechoslovakia | Bulgaria | Spain |
| M8+ | East Germany | West Germany | New Zealand | Australia | France | Bulgaria |
| W1x | East Germany | Soviet Union | Hungary | Bulgaria | United States | Romania |
| W2- | East Germany | Canada | Netherlands | Bulgaria | Romania | New Zealand |
| W2x | Bulgaria | Soviet Union | United States | Norway | Romania | East Germany |
| W4+ | East Germany | United States | Romania | Bulgaria | Canada | Soviet Union (disqualified) |
| W4x+ | Bulgaria | West Germany | Soviet Union | East Germany | Netherlands | Romania |
| W8+ | Soviet Union | East Germany | Canada | United States | West Germany | Bulgaria |

## Great Britain

Six men's teams and only one women's team from Great Britain competed at the championships.
| Event | | Notes |
| M1x | Tim Crooks | 5th in B final |
| M2- | Jim Clark & John Roberts | Silver medal |
| M2+ | N/A | no entry |
| M2x | Chris Baillieu & Michael Hart | Silver medal |
| M4- | Martin Cross, David Townsend, Ian McNuff, John Beattie (London RC) | Bronze medal |
| M4+ | N/A | no entry |
| M4x | Allan Whitwell, Eric Sims, Charles Wiggin, Malcolm Carmichael | 4th in B final |
| M8+ | Lenny Robertson, Allan Whitwell, Henry Clay, Malcolm McGowan, Campbell, Gordon Rankine, Robert Milligan, Colin Seymour, Robert Lee (cox) | eliminated in repechage |
| W1x | N/A | no entry |
| W2- | N/A | no entry |
| W2x | Pauline Hart & Astrid Ayling | 1st in B final |
| W4+ | N/A | no entry |
| W4x+ | N/A | no entry |
| W8+ | N/A | no entry |