Plea for veteran racing Many former oarsmen are today officials. Most limit their activities to looking after the interests of their own club. They hardly travel about any more. However, it is in everybody’s interest that the old as well as the young oarsmen should keep in touch with each other, not only at national, but also at international gatherings. International races for veterans would doubtless be successful. They would pro vide the opportunity for contact between the officials of many coun tries, which would not only be pleasant in itself, but also of great benefit to the sport of rowing. Extract from “L’Aviron et la Vie sur l’eau.” September 28th 1912, page 567. In November 1912 , it was announced that the Kingdom of Hungary had applied for affiliation to FISA. March 14th-15th 1913 - Frankfurt am Main 1st extraordinary FISA congress Present: 12 delegates from 5 federations affiliated to FISA. -Georg W. Buxenstein, the president of the Ger man federation, was appointed chairman. Nine delegates from other federations (DEN, NED, HUN, NOR, SWE ) were present in an unofficial capacity. Their intention was to prepare the way for their federa tions’ admission to FISA. A Nordic federation composed of Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland had been formed. The Russian delegation said that they were not opposed to the latter’s membership of the Nordic federa tion. Because the FISA Statutes did not make provision for the admission of a group of several countries as a sin gle federation within FISA, an amendment to these rules, which all the delegates promised to ratify, would be placed on the agenda of the next congress at Ghent. It was unanimously agreed to admit the Hungarian fed eration as a member, on the understanding that the recognition of Hungary could never be an obstacle to a subsequent application by the Austrian federation. A revision of the Rules of Racing was then decided upon. The new Rules would come into force on January 1st 1914. Only four or five matters were held over until the next congress. The “entente cordiale” prevailed. Where eliminating heats were necessary, no crew changes for the final would be allowed. If only one crew remained in a heat, it would nevertheless be required to row over. During the evening, one of the delegates of the host fed eration, the commercial consultant, Ernest Ladenburg, a former chairman of the Frankfurt Regatta committee, in vited his colleagues to dine at his house. His daughter acted as hostess. The following day, work began on tackling matters con cerning the Olympic Games. Oskar Ruperti, the general manager of the German federation, who would be its president from 1919 to 1926 and a member of the Inter national Olympic Committee from 1924 to 1929, took over as chairman. Matters were quickly resolved. The FISA delegations decided that, in future, they would only participate in the Olympic Games if these were held under FISA rules. Luncheon was offered by the German federation, the “Deutscher Ruderverband”. This was followed by a visit to the rowing course in the centre of the city. The evening was spent celebrating, at a formal banquet, the 30th an niversary of the city regatta committee. “At midnight,” stated O.-E. Ducanot, “coffee was served in the small banqueting hall. Those with a delicate constitution then withdrew. We next went back to the main hall for enter tainment, consisting of a concert, in the course of which beer was served, while girls sang and danced. At Sam, the serious-minded talked of retiring. As for the others - there is no clue as to what they did, nor if they have yet finished the night out.” April 1913 The secretary of FISA, Count C. Vialardi di Verrone, let it be known in April 1913 that he had received from the Russian federation a request for admission to FISA, which would appear on the agenda of the subsequent congress. May 24th 1913 In a circular addressed to the affiliated clubs, the “Koninklijke Nederlandsche Zeil en Roeivereeniging” of Amsterdam, the central office of the Dutch federation, set out in unambiguous terms the desperate need for Dutch rowing not to remain outside the powerful body that FISA was becoming. August 26th—27th 1913 — Ghent 22nd FISA congress Present: 17 delegates from 8 federations (taking into ac count the newly affiliated federations). The delegates were welcomed at the town hall then en tertained to lunch at the Universal Exhibition, before be ginning their meeting at 3pm in one of the rooms of the Palais des Congres. In accordance with established custom, the president of the host federation - on this occasion, Oscar Gregoire - chaired the meeting. The Russian, Dutch and Austrian federations were all admitted as members of FISA. The Adriatic federation, being no longer viable, followed the example of Alsace- Lorraine, and resigned. The admission of four Spanish clubs was postponed, as their application was not on the agenda. For the first time, it was necessary to draw up rules prescribing eliminating heats. The circular which had been sent to the federations was approved. For five en tries or fewer, there would be no eliminating heats. In the Part 1 35
