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Review set to start on Rockhampton Olympic rowing venue

Review set to start on Rockhampton Olympic rowing venue

The Age4 days ago
A technical review of the Fitzroy River Olympic rowing venue is about to begin, Premier David Crisafulli announced as he visited the planned Rockhampton venue to mark seven years to the day until the start of the Brisbane 2032 Games.
Crisafulli said the Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority would conduct the review, which would start immediately.
But, ultimately, World Rowing would decide whether the Fitzroy was an appropriate venue for Olympic competition.
Professor David Hamilton, the director of Griffith University's Australian Rivers Institute, said the Fitzroy posed legitimate concerns for competition integrity.
The former rower said the sport was 'very sensitive' to currents.
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'If you're going to do something like that, you'd want to do the computer modelling of it to make sure that it wasn't going to necessarily prejudice certain lanes in the rowing field,' Hamilton said.
'It's got to be really carefully evaluated, because the last thing the Games would want is something that brought into jeopardy the ability to have an even playing field.'
Asked on Wednesday what would happen if the sport's governing body determined Rockhampton was not suitable for international competition, Crisafulli was adamant.
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