# 1962 World Rowing Championships

The 1962 World Rowing Championships were the inaugural world championships in rowing. The competition was held in September 1962 on the Rotsee in Lucerne, Switzerland. Rowers from West Germany dominated the competition, winning five of the seven boat classes.

## Background

The Fédération Internationale des Sociétés d'Aviron (FISA) decided in 1961 that, like at the Olympics, rowers from the whole world should compete for a championship title; thus far, they had only organised the European Rowing Championships, although they were open to rowers from outside of Europe. Prior to the 1974 World Rowing Championships, only men competed. Seven boat classes were part of the inaugural world championships that was held from 6 to 9 September on the Swiss Rotsee. There were 401 competitors from 24 countries (counting East and West Germany as one country) with 107 boats at the competition. Between 13 (double scull) and 17 (coxless pair) competed per boat class.

### German rowers

FISA did not recognise East Germany, hence only one German crew was permitted per event. Selection trials between East and West German crews were held on 3 September on the Rotsee, three days before the start of the championships. As was predicted by East German media outlets, West German crews would win in six of the seven categories, with 1960 Olympic single scull silver medal winner Achim Hill the only successful East German qualifier, beating Edgar Heidorn from Hanover. During the world championships, Hill did not proceed beyond the heats, though.

## Medal summary

Medalists at the 1962 World Rowing Championships:

### Men's events

| Event | Gold | Gold | Silver | Silver | Bronze | Bronze |
| Event | Country & rowers | Time | Country & rowers | Time | Country & rowers | Time |
| M1x | Soviet Union Vyacheslav Ivanov | 7:07.09 | Great Britain Stuart Mackenzie | 7:10.67 | United States Seymour Cromwell | 7:11.88 |
| M2x | France René Duhamel Bernard Monnereau | 6:33.90 | Soviet Union Boris Dubrovskiy Oleg Tyurin | 6:34.74 | West Germany Jost Krause-Wichmann Josef Steffes-Mies | 6:34.92 |
| M2- | West Germany Dieter Bender Günther Zumkeller | 6:54.62 | Soviet Union Valentin Boreyko Oleg Golovanov | 6:58.19 | Switzerland Hugo Waser Adolf Waser | 7:05.59 |
| M2+ | West Germany Wolfgang Neuß Klaus-Günter Jordan Frank Steinhäuser | 7:19.10 | Romania Ionel Petrov Carol Vereș Oprea Păunescu | 7:22.60 | Soviet Union Vladimir Smirnov Valeriy Polkovski Igor Rudakov | 7:24.17 |
| M4- | West Germany Gerd Wolter Dagobert Thometschek Peter Paustian Christian Prey | 6:19.24 | France André Fevret Roger Chatelain Philippe Malivoire Jean-Pierre Drivet | 6:21.78 | Austria Dieter Losert Dieter Ebner Horst Kuttelwascher Helmuth Kuttelwascher | |
| M4+ | West Germany Bernd-Jürgen Marschner Peter Neusel Bernhard Britting Manfred Ross Jürgen Oelke | 6:29.12 | France Jean Ledoux Émile Clerc André Sloth Pierre Maddaloni Alain Bouffard | 6:31.93 | Soviet Union Boris Fyodorov Yury Suslin Yuriy Tyukalov Anatoli Fedorov Igor Rudakov | 6:33.30 |
| M8+ | West Germany Horst Meyer Jürgen Plagemann Klaus Aeffke Klaus Behrens Hans-Jürgen Wallbrecht Karl-Heinrich von Groddeck Ingo Kliefoth [de] Bernd Kruse [de] Thomas Ahrens | 5:50.83 | Soviet Union Ričardas Vaitkevičius Antanas Bagdonavičius Zigmas Jukna Viktor Semyonov Vytautas Briedis Petras Karla Yaroslav Cherstvy Juozas Jagelavičius Yuriy Lorentsson | 5:53.56 | France Christian Puibaraud Jean-Pierre Bellet Jacques Morel Joseph Moroni Georges Morel Robert Dumontois Bernard Meynadier Michel Viaud Alain Bouffard | 5:55.36 |

### Event codes

| | Single scull | Double scull | Coxless pair | Coxed pair | Coxless four | Coxed four | Eight |
| Men's | M1x | M2x | M2- | M2+ | M4- | M4+ | M8+ |

## Medal table

| Country | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| West Germany | 5 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| Soviet Union | 1 | 3 | 2 | 6 |
| France | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| Great Britain | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Romania | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Austria | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Switzerland | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| United States | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Total | 7 | 7 | 7 | 21 |
The countries that did compete but did not win medals were Denmark and the Netherlands (they had entered 7 boats each), Czechoslovakia (6 boats), Norway and Poland (5 boats each), Belgium, Japan and Sweden (4 boats each), Australia, Finland and Canada (3 boats each), Israel, Yugoslavia, and Hungary (2 boats each), and New Zealand and Portugal (1 boat each).

## Finals

| Event | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th |
| M1x | Soviet Union | Great Britain | United States | Netherlands | Switzerland | New Zealand |
| M2x | France | Soviet Union | West Germany | Czechoslovakia | Great Britain | Netherlands |
| M2- | West Germany | Soviet Union | Switzerland | Poland | Finland | Netherlands |
| M2+ | West Germany | Romania | Soviet Union | Denmark | United States | Poland |
| M4- | West Germany | France | Austria | Italy | Switzerland | Romania |
| M4+ | West Germany | France | Soviet Union | Poland | Australia | Romania |
| M8+ | West Germany | Soviet Union | France | Italy | Australia | Canada |