2013 Fisa Extraordinary Congress - Some Big Changes

The just released World Rowing press release highlights some signficant rule changes adopted at the 2013 FISA Extraordinary Congress. Given that most national rowing federations use or inherit the FISA rules for their own rowing rules, these changes will have some significant impact on local regattas.

Masters Rowing:

The Congress created a new age category in masters rowing for those over the age of 85. More and more, the masters regattas have rowers in their 90s so a category for them was needed.

Adaptive Rowing:

The Congress approved the Council proposal to add a new boat, the Legs, Trunk and Arms Mixed Double Scull (LTAMix2x), to the World Rowing Championship programme. This would allow member federations another boat for the category with the largest talent pool.

Regatta starts:

100 metre rule elimnated - The Congress approved the French and German Federations' proposal to eliminate the 100 metre breakage rule. This proposal arose following a controversial stoppage in the lightweight men's double sculls in London when a crew stopped rowing claiming damage according to this rule.

Regatta finishes:

dead heats and rerace criteria - A new wording for reducing the need to re-row a race following a dead heat was adopted. If the difference between two crews at the finish is not able to be determined, the jury would look at previous rounds in the regatta and would advance the crew with the better prior results, similar to a "count back" used in other sports.

Gender reassignment is now codified:

A series of new Bye-Laws were added related to medical provisions. .... and a clause about gender re-assignment and hyperandrogenism.

We'll post more when there is more information about gender reassignment. If there is a doctor in the GLRF community, we'd love it if you added a comment on the importance of adding hyperandrogenism to the medical provisions.