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History of World Rowing Under 23 Championships

Australian Rowing at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships

History of the Regatta

The concept of this regatta was first mooted in the early 1970s. The competition is a showcase for tomorrow's champions and is open to all athletes under 23 who have not won a medal at the Olympic Games or Senior World Championships.

On 20 July 1975 delegates from Belgium, France, Italy and Switzerland who conducted a male-only competition called the Match des Quatre Nations, plus two other federations, met in Italy to discuss the notion of providing international competition to athletes of the "second level". It was decided a new class of competition had to be developed so that younger athletes could compete against peers of similar age and experience. This class was initially called debutantes, and was later changed to Senior B.

As more federations joined this competition, name changes followed including Match des Cinq Nations and Match des Six Nations. In the late 1970s, the name Match des Seniors was coined. This was a difficult decision as the first competition was held in Macon, France. In French, "seniors" means "old boys"!

Until 1979 the competition was run under the supervision of an honorary general secretary and since then, by an international committee. In 1992 it was decided to give the competition a more generic name and it was changed to Coupe des Nations, or the Nations Cup. The first Nations Cup regatta was held in 1993. By 1996, some 34 member federations of the Nations Cup competed, with every continent represented.

The event has created some challenge cups as follows:

Men Hamburg Cup
Men's Lightweight Ostrig Cup
Women J Waefelaer Cup
Women's Lightweight Frankrig Cup
Combined Lightweight Spanien Cup
Overall Point score Oaolo d'Aloja Cup

The winners of these cups are as follows:

  Men Men's Lwt Women Women's Lwt Comb. Lwt Combined
1976 FRG   FRA      
1977 FRA   NED      
1978 FRA   FRA      
1979 FRG   FRG      
1980 FRG   FRG      
1981 FRA   FRG      
0982 FRG   NED      
1983 FRG   ITA/FRG      
1984 FRG   FRG     FRG
1985 ITA   FRG     FRG
1986 FRG FRG FRG     FRG
1987 FRG ITA FRG ITA ITA FRG
1988 ITA FRG FRG DEN/FRG FRG FRG
1989 FRG ITA FRG DEN DEN FRG
1990 FRG ITA GBR SUI SUI FRG
1991 GER ITA GER ITA ITA GER
1992 GER GER GER GER GER GER
1993 ITA GER GER GER GER GER
1994 ITA DEN GER ITA ITA GER
1995 GER GER GER GER GER GER
1996 GER GER GER NED GER GER
1997 ITA AUS AUS EST AUS GER
1998 GER GRE GER SUI ITA GER
1999 GER AUS GER AUS AUS GER
2000            
2001            
2002            
2003            

The Nations Cup continued until 2004 when the regatta came under the auspices of FISA and became the FISA World Under 23 Regatta. From 2005 it has become known as the World Rowing Under 23 Championships.

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