1978 World Rowing Championships

1978 World Rowing Championships
Logo of the 1978 World Rowing Championships
Venue	Lake Karapiro
Location	Cambridge, New Zealand
Dates	4 November
← 1978 Copenhagen (Lwt) 1979 Bled →

The 1978 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held over one week, with finals on 4 November 1978 at Lake Karapiro near Cambridge, New Zealand. Thirty countries were represented at the regatta. In the history of the World Rowing Championships, 1978 was the only year when the lightweight rowing championships were not held in conjunction with the open men and women event; the lightweight events had already been held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in August.

Lake Karapiro was formed in 1947 through a hydroelectric project on the Waikato River. It was soon recognised as the best rowing venue in New Zealand, and was used for the 1950 British Empire Games. World rowing championships had been held since 1962 by FISA, the International Rowing Federation, and in 1974 New Zealand was provisionally awarded the 1978 world event.Don Rowlands, who had won rowing medals at British Empire and Commonwealth Games in the 1950s and would later became chairman of the 1978 World Rowing Championships organising committee, had lobbied for the event to come to New Zealand; prior to 1978, the event had always been held in the Northern Hemisphere. He found a supporter in Thomas Keller, the president of FISA. There was also some curiosity amongst the rowing fraternity how a small island nation from the South Pacific managed to win gold medals at the 1968 and 1972 Summer Olympics, in men's coxed four and men's eight, respectively. But it was not until the 1976 Summer Olympics that 1978 event was confirmed, which left only two years to organise the event.