The beautiful, new, soon-to-be world class rowing facility at Nathan Benderson Lake in Sarasota is the site of the Sarasota Invitational.

This site already boasts a naturally straight shoreline, anchored Starting Docks, and Albano style buoys ever 10 meters.  The course is very fair to rowers in all lanes, and ample spectating areas can be found all along the shore.

The venue has the unique advantage of being in a sub-tropical setting, close to the interstate for ease of access, with a large number of hotels nearby.

Sarasota International Airport is a mere 6 miles away, and both Tampa International and Southwest Florida Int'l (Ft. Myers) are each approximately 70 miles away.  For those coming in from Orlando, the trip takes approx 2 hours.

Beautiful beaches, wonderful museums, theatre, more dining choices than you could hope for, and more all await you for the days you aren't rowing.  However, the weather allows for year round rowing in a variety of locales in Sarasota and Manatee, and the area was named the "Best Place to Retire and Row in the US" in Jan 2010.  And Siesta Key beach was named the Number One beach in the entire US in 2011.

In 2012, the course finished at the 1500 meter mark on the lake.  This year, it will finish at the 2000 meter mark on the new FISA course!  While there is still a lot of construction going on, you should be able to get a pretty good picture of what it will look like.

**** See the News tab for the reason for the later date ****