How to fight? In Chungju, a peaceful city of 200 inhabitants, known for having given birth to the current Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, South Korea is organizing the world rowing championship. But she does it the Korean way. In a big way, then. And the result leaves foreign observers speechless.
Roland Weill, vice-president of the French Rowing Federation (FFA), explains: “Two years ago, the site of the world championship “was still a wasteland. There was nothing. » Today, the Koreans have built a main building there (grandstand, press room, offices, etc.), a finish tower, a “Marina center” (restaurant, rest room for rowers, offices, etc.) and a boathouse equipped with showers and changing rooms. Cost: around 45 million euros. A “floating road” was even installed parallel to the competition pool, over the first 750 meters, to allow the television truck to perfectly follow the races. Never seen.
It is generally agreed that the result surpasses anything that has been proposed in the past for an international rowing competition. “I have never seen facilities of this level before,” admits Daniel Fauché, the manager of the French team. Everything is perfect. And the Koreans have a truly astonishing attention to detail. » Like, for example, the apple tree plantation installed behind the main stand, where each of the trees is dedicated to a country participating in the world championship. “The organizers went so far as to decorate all the apples with stickers illustrating rowing,” enthuses the French coach.
At the French team hotel, an accommodation center for high-level athletes located 10 minutes by shuttle from the pool, everything has been done to make the stay pleasant. “We were treated to local entertainment,” explains Daniel Fauché, “demonstrations of crafts and folklore in the evening, to entertain the rowers. »
The organization's budget, estimated at 18 million euros, is giving the next two hosts of the Rowing World Cup a cold sweat, Amsterdam in 2014 and Aiguebelette, in Savoie, the following year. In France, the organization of the last world championship before the London Games should have a budget of around 10 million euros. The opening ceremony of the Chungju world championship alone cost 1,4 million euros. A record. But it attracted 15 spectators, including Ban Ki-moon, the country's most famous child.
After six days of competition, on Thursday evening, nearly 58 spectators had already attended the events on Lake Tangeum. The organizers hope for 000 on the last evening of the World Cup, Sunday September 100st. Clarification: tickets for the public cost between 000 and 1 euros.
How to fight? Difficult…
