Annamarie Phelps is new chair of European Rowing.

10 November 2021

The 2021 European Rowing General Assembly was held virtually on Saturday, 6 November, World Rowing wrote on their website yesterday. Delegates from 25 member federations registered to attend virtually.

Annamarie Phelps of Great Britain was elected chair to replace retiring Ryszard Stadniuk of Poland, who has served in the position since 2008. Phelps was first elected to the European Rowing Board (ERB) in 2017 and served as Chair of British Rowing between 2013 and 2018. She is vice chair of the British Olympic Association among other prominent positions.

There were also elections for five positions on the ERB, which consists of four representatives of the member federations and three representatives nominated by the World Rowing Council but subject to vote by the General Assembly. Two of the four member federations representative positions were up for election and were won by Annamarie Phelps and Asuncion Loriente of Spain. Phelps' position is for a four-year term on the ERB while Loriente's is a mandate of three years.

This completes the transitional arrangement period defined when the European Rowing Confederation was founded in November 2018. The other two positions are held by Eva Szanto of Hungary and Nebojsa Jevremovich of Serbia. Elections for the three positions for representatives of the World Rowing Council on the ERB were put to vote. Patrick Rombaut of Belgium, Dusan Machacek of the Czech Republic and Algirdas Raslanas of Lithuania were elected for four-year terms.

European Rowing announced the launch of the 2022 Strategic Event Attribution Process (SEAP) ending with attribution at the 2022 General Assembly on 13 August 2022 in Munich, Germany. The SEAP was developed to recognise the significant investment by government authorities in facilities for the sport of rowing and offers them a chance to take a more strategic approach to staging international events.

Two editions of a new event were attributed by the General Assembly: the European Rowing Coastal Championships, including both the endurance and Beach Sprint formats. The first edition will take place in San Sebastian, Spain, on 27-31 October 2022 and the second in La Seyne-Sur-Mer, France, from 31 August to 4 September 2023. Both will offer the two Coastal Rowing formats in a five-day framework.

Ryszard Stadniuk

It was the last General Assembly of long-serving chair Ryszard Stadniuk. Members of the European Rowing Board paid tribute to Ryszard and congratulated him for his strong leadership and the vast expansion of European Rowing events during his chairmanship for the benefit and development of European rowers.