4 December 2021

Yesterday, it was announced that the Jönköping Organising Committee (OC), the Swedish Rowing Federation and the European Rowing Board have decided to cancel the 2022 European Rowing Indoor Championships (ERICH), which was scheduled to take place in Jönköping, Sweden, on 29-30 January 2022.

The decision was taken in consideration of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, health concerns caused by the emergence of new virus variants, and the expectation that the cross-border travel will continue to be very complicated.

The Jönköping OC said that all entry fees will be refunded to their original mode of payment within the next four weeks.

At the same time, it was announced that the 2022 World Rowing Indoor Championships (WRICH) scheduled for 25-26 February 2022 in Hamburg, Germany, will be staged as a fully virtual competition. The COVID-19 pandemic created the possibility of hybrid participation. This approach would have given participants the option of taking part physically in Hamburg or virtually from anywhere in the world.

With the uncertainty caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, including new virus variants, potential lockdowns, and uncertainty in international travel, the Hamburg Organising Committee and the World Rowing Executive Committee have concluded to convert the 2022 World Rowing Indoor Championships to a virtual only event.

The qualification process for the virtual participants remains the same – (Virtual Qualification guide – Link).

Participants who have already entered to compete physically in Hamburg will have one of the following options:

  • Switch their existing entry to race virtually. These competitors will then have to go through the virtual qualification process.
  • Withdraw their entry and get a full refund.

To indicate their preference, participants should email indoor@worldrowing.com no later than the 2 February 2022.

All the other local & national events (German National Indoor Championships, German University Indoor Championships, Invictus Races, Hamburg Schools Indoor Rowing Challenge, German Talentecup, Company Indoor Rowing Competition) will remain as scheduled in Hamburg as physical events at the Edel-Optics.de Arena. If local or national measures are introduced which impact the staging of these local events physically, a decision would be taken by the Organising Committee and German Rowing Federation at the appropriate time.