promote swimming. The demolition of slum houses will expose to view an interesting archaeological monument which was previously concealed by them; and a fencing club will be built in their place. Gentlemen, I dare con tinue no further, for the list is long of the works needed by the town and which my engineer is prepared to exe cute in the interest of sport. It is because of such efforts that Ghent is improving little by little... ” Our thanks are due to Mr. Compyn and to all his like-minded predeces sors and successors. August 27th 1905 — Ghent 13th men’s European championships About 15,000 open umbrellas could have been counted on the banks of the Terneuzen canal at the start of the first race. Fine weather would have attracted at very least 50,000 spectators. Ghent, the main rowing centre of Belgium, and the home town of great crews, holders of 18 European rowing titles, had everything to guarantee an impressive FISA occasion. Victor Compyn and his friends from the “Sport Nautique” club, had spared neither trouble nor expense to ensure its success. The rain was powerless to thwart this. The races 4 +: 4 started 1. BEL 2. ITA 3. FRA 4. ALS-LOR An easy win for the famous oarsmen of Ghent, whose dominance was unaffected by the substitution of Julien Lauwers for the seriously ill Victor van Acker. The crew from Venice pipped the French on the fine, to take se cond place. 2x: 4 started 1. BEL 2. ITA 3. FRA 4. ALS-LOR A brilliant victory for Conrades and Crombet. lx: 4 started 1. ALS-LOR 2. FRA 3. ITA - BEL (disqualified) The Belgian, Theodore Conrades, established a lead but, between 300 and 400 metres, steering badly, head ed for the bank, hit the bottom and overturned. Bar- benes and Sacchini, rowing neck and neck behind him, stopped, so as not to damage the Belgian boat. The um pire stopped the race and disqualified the unfortunate Conrades. This decision was the source of much com ment, but the race was restarted. It was won for the first time by an oarsman from Strasbourg, Henri Barbenes, rowing with a relaxed and powerful style to beat France’s hope, Gaston Delaplane, who was seriously disadvan taged by damage to his boat. The winner Henri Barbenes was born not far from the water on November 11th 1885. He is 1 metre 89cm tall, and his weight in training is 75 kg. Progress in the European championships: 4th., 2nd., then 1st. He trains twice a day. System “D” for coaching 2 +: 3 started 1. BEL 2. FRA 3. ITA In terrible conditions and with poor visibility, the Bel gians had an easy victory. The Italians had held the lead for 300 metres, but the need to repair a slide in haste just before the start prevented them from doing them selves true justice. 8 + : 3 started 1. FRA 2. BEL 3. ITA Holders of the tide for eight years, the Belgians, on home waters, were powerless when faced with the French com posite, Boulogne-Dunkirk. They tried to pull back dur ing the last 300 metres but, failing to do so, stopped row ing, very nearly depriving themselves of second place. EISA’s NEW ADDRESS: 2, via Papacino, Turin. September 9th 1906 — Pallanza 15th FISA congress Present: 13 delegates from 6 federations Louis Capuccio, having been elected president of the “Regio Rowing-Club Italiano”, was again elected to chair the congress. From 1908, in the 4+ and the 8 + , coxswains must weigh at least 55 kg, 5 kilograms of which could be dead-weight. The highly esteemed Belgian coach, Julien de Dryver, one of the founders of FISA, explained how useful it would be for the clubs to have a sensible adult coxing instead of the young boys then being used, who lacked experience and cool judgement. In his opinion, clubs should be perfectly able to find a fairly fight adult among their members, thus avoiding many accidents. From 1908, the coxswainless pair oars (2-) would replace the pair oars with coxswain (2 +) on the Europe an championships programme. The hope was expressed that the annual date for the Eu ropean championships would always be as near to Au gust 15th as possible. With the Belgian federation as in termediary, contact with the German federation (the DRV), was being maintained. Part 1 23
