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.[1][2] Rowers from West Germany dominated the competition, winning five of the seven boat classes.

1962 World Rowing Championships
Venue	Rotsee
Location	Lucerne, Switzerland
Dates	6–9 September
Competitors	401 from 24 nations

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.[3] Prior to the 1974 World Rowing Championships, only men competed.[1] 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.[3]

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.[4] 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.[2][4][5] During the world championships, Hill did not proceed beyond the heats, though.[6]

Medal summary

Medalists at the 1962 World Rowing Championships:[1][2]

Men's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
	Country & rowers	Time[2]	Country & rowers	Time	Country & rowers	Time
M1x [7]	Soviet Union Vyacheslav Ivanov	7:07.09	Great Britain Stuart MacKenzie	7:10.67	United States Seymour Cromwell	7:11.88
M2x [8]	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- [9]	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+ [10]	West Germany Wolfgang Neuß Klaus-Günter Jordan Frank Steinhäuser	7:19.10	Romania Ionel Petrov Carol Vereș Oprea Păunescu [11]	7:22.60	Soviet Union Vladimir Smirnov Valeriy Polkovski Igor Rudakov	7:24.17
M4- [12]	West Germany Gerd Wolter Dagobert Thometschek Peter Paustian Christian Prey	6:19.24	France André Fevret [13] Roger Chatelain [14] Philippe Malivoire [15] Jean-Pierre Drivet [16]	6:21.78[17]	Austria Dieter Losert Dieter Ebner Horst Kuttelwascher [18] Helmuth Kuttelwascher [19]
M4+ [20]	West Germany Bernd-Jürgen Marschner Peter Neusel Bernhard Britting Manfred Ross Jürgen Oelke	6:29.12	France Jean Ledoux [21] Émile Clerc [22] André Sloth Pierre Maddaloni [23] Alain Bouffard [24]	6:31.93	Soviet Union Boris Fyodorov Yury Suslin Yuriy Tyukalov Anatoli Fedorov Igor Rudakov	6:33.30
M8+ [25]	West Germany Horst Meyer Jürgen Plagemann Klaus Aeffke Klaus Behrens Hans-Jürgen Wallbrecht Karl-Heinrich von Groddeck Ingo Kliefoth Bernd Kruse 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 [26] Jean-Pierre Bellet [27] Jacques Morel Joseph Moroni [28] Georges Morel Robert Dumontois Bernard Meynadier [29] Michel Viaud [30] Alain Bouffard [24]	5:55.36

Event codes

	single scull	double scull	coxless pair	coxed pair	coxless four	coxed four	eight (coxed)
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).[3]

References

1. "World Rowing Medalists". HickokSports.com. 29 September 2011. Archived from the original on 21 May 2013.
2. Guerin, Andrew; Foster, Margot. "1962 World Championships—Lucerne, Switzerland". RowingHistory-Aus.info. Archived from the original on 21 October 2014.
3. Allmert, Hans (3 September 1962). "Von der Raabe-Diele zum Rotsee". Neues Deutschland (in German). 17 (242). p. 3. Retrieved 26 December 2017.
4. Sydow, Waldemar (1 September 1969). "DDR-Ruderer nicht aussichtslos nach Luzern". Neue Zeit (in German). 18 (203). p. 8. Retrieved 26 December 2017.
5. "Nur Hill setzte sich durch". Neues Deutschland (in German). 17 (243). 4 September 1962. p. 8. Retrieved 26 December 2017.
6. Adam, Karl (31 July 1970). "Rudern in Deutschland". Die Zeit (in German) (31). Retrieved 21 October 2017.
7. "Rudern – Weltmeisterschaften. Einer – Herren" [Rowing – World Championships. One – Men]. Sport-Komplett.de (in German). Archived from the original on 23 June 2015.
8. "Rudern – Weltmeisterschaften. Doppelzweier – Herren" [Rowing – World Championships. Double Sculls – Men]. Sport-Komplett.de (in German). Archived from the original on 25 October 2014.
9. "Rudern – Weltmeisterschaften. Zweier ohne Steuermann – Herren" [Rowing – World Championships. Two without coxswain – Men]. Sport-Komplett.de (in German). Archived from the original on 11 December 2014.
10. "Rudern – Weltmeisterschaften. Zweier mit Steuermann – Herren" [Rowing – World Championships. Two with coxswain – Men]. Sport-Komplett.de (in German). Archived from the original on 31 October 2014.
11. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Oprea Păunescu". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020.
12. "Rudern – Weltmeisterschaften. Vierer ohne Steuermann" [Rowing – World Championships. Coxless four]. Sport-Komplett.de (in German). Archived from the original on 6 October 2014.
13. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "André Fevret". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020.
14. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Roger Chatelain". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020.
15. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Philippe Malivoire". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020.
16. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Jean-Pierre Drivet". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020.
17. "Fünfmal Westdeutschland". Neues Deutschland (in German). 17 (249). 10 September 1962. p. 4. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
18. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Athletes – Horst Kuttelwascher". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020.
19. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Helmuth Kuttelwascher". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020.
20. "Rudern – Weltmeisterschaften. Vierer mit Steuermann – Herren" [Rowing – World Championships. Four with coxswain – Men]. Sport-Komplett.de (in German). Archived from the original on 13 January 2014.
21. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Jean Ledoux". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020.
22. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Émile Clerc". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020.
23. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Pierre Maddaloni". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020.
24. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Alain Bouffard". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020.
25. "Rudern – Weltmeisterschaften. Achter – Herren" [Rowing – World Championships. Eight – Men]. Sport-Komplett.de (in German). Archived from the original on 17 October 2014.
26. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Christian Puibaraud". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020.
27. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Jean-Pierre Bellet". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020.
28. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Joseph Moroni". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020.
29. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Bernard Meynadier". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020.
30. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Michel Viaud". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020.