World Rowing Coastal Championships in Canada attract big entry

The largest field is the men’s solo with 58 competitors entered, including 14 Canadian crews and seven crews from the United States. Big names in coastal rowing are looking for the podium including reigning World Champion Simone Martini (Italy), 2017 silver medallist Eduardo Linares Ruiz (Peru) and Spain’s Adrian Miramon Quiroga.

The new category of the mixed double sculls has proved popular with the third largest number of entries. Thirty-one crews are set to compete including the formidable combination of Pierrick Ledard and Edwige Alfred of France. Alfred has a number of world championship medals, including bronze at last year’s coastal championships and Ledard consistently tops the French men’s solo. The duo won the Open de France just a few weeks ago.

The women’s solo sees 27 boats take to the water, including five competitors from Ireland. Reigning World Champion Diana Dymchenko from Ukraine will be looking to defend her title. She is likely to face tough competition from Edwige Alfred (France) and Jessica Berra (France).  

The event has attracted many Canadian and American competitors who are taking advantage of the North American location. The organisers will supply 48 coastal boats for the championships and these will be available for purchase by rowing clubs following the event. Rowing Canada is hoping that this will help extend the reach of coastal rowing around Canada.

Racing takes place along the coastline of Sidney, just north of Victoria. The location makes use of its sandy beach for a beach start, the first time for a World Rowing Coastal Championships. The heats and b-finals take place over a four-kilometre course with five buoyed turns, while the a-finals will use a six-kilometre course also with five buoyed turns.  

Due to the large number of entries in the men’s solo, a qualification race runs on Thursday 11 October. All crews ranked 01-05 by their national federation will proceed directly to the heats. All other crews will take part in the qualification race. The top eight crews from the qualification race then proceed to the heats and all others are eliminated. For more information, read the progression system document here.

More information: here.