Olympic planners use Benderson as row model

EAST COUNTY — Nathan Benderson Park is becoming a power house in the world of rowing. That’s why officials who are planning the rowing portion of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo will use its rowing facilities as a model for a multiuse aquatic venue, said Matt Smith, president of the International Rowing Federation (FISA).

“We’re really pleased about the multiuse approach to all the facilities,” Smith said of the rowing and other facilities at the park. “I’m asking them to help us explain the approach to the 2020 games in Tokyo. (Tokyo is) preparing all their construction plans for their regatta. They are particularly good here at really creating a (sustainable venue).” Smith, as well as Guin Batten, chairwoman of FISA’s Rowing For All Committee, spent Jan. 27 at Nathan Benderson Park, which will host the 2017 World Rowing Championships.

Leaders of Suncoast Aquatic Nature Center Association (SANCA), the organization that manages events at the park, plans to build a finish tower and boat house, among other amenities, at the site after securing approximately $22 million in funds. They intend to complete projects before the World Rowing Championships in September 2017.

Smith’s visit served primarily to check in on the status of future amenities, as well as to see improvements completed since his last visit, including a floating road along the length of the lake that will be used by television cameras and wave attenuators.

“The wave attenuators they’ve developed here really work,” Smith said. “We’ve recommended them for the 2020 Tokyo Games.”

The 2020 Tokyo Games’ rowing site also will host the sports of canoeing and kayaking.

Smith said Tokyo organizers are seeking to create recreational areas for a variety of aquatic sports.

“They realize the course is very expensive to build and they are coming up with some alternative means, looking at multiuse,” SANCA President Paul Blackketter said. “We’re ahead of them, and FISA has accepted that we’re a little bit of the gold standard for a multiuse facility. We’ve demonstrated that you can build a venue and provide economic benefit to the community and have a sustainable program.”

Blackketter has spoken before with representatives of the Tokyo committee because he serves on FISA’s Event and Promotion Commission.

He said it’s an honor to be promoted by FISA .

“It shows that if you do your due diligence, you do your homework, it pays off,” he said. “That’s what we’re seeing and experiencing here. It’s crazy cool. I love it.”

Blackketter will travel in March to London for FISA’s joint commission meeting. He expects to meet with Tokyo representatives at that time to develop more specific times and dates to meet and discuss facilities.

Promoting rowing
During International Rowing Federation (FISA) President Matt Smith’s visit last week, he and representatives from USRowing, Visit Sarasota, Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, Manatee and Sarasota counties, the Nathan Benderson Park Foundation and the Florida Sports Commission also met to discuss specifics of the 2017 World Rowing Championship, venue details and the possibility of expanding the sport of rowing in the Sarasota-Bradenton region. Blackketter said they are considering the addition of coastal rowing to the area’s rowing offerings.

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].