Smiles and happiness - reactions from Day 2 of the 2022 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals

The first medals of the 2022 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals were awarded today – there was plenty of smiles on the beach for all medal winners in Pembrokeshire.

Under 19 Coastal Men’s Solo (CM1x)

Mohamed Rayen Hafsa (TUN) – gold

“It was a difficult competition, but I managed it. It was a very proud moment – I don’t have the words.”

James Cox (GBR) – silver

“Pretty gutting I didn’t get gold, but credit to Tunisia. He got the wave on the way back and I didn’t, basically.

“It’s been really good. I usually do a lot of river rowing so this is something different, and the week training camp paid off. I learned a different style of rowing that I didn’t know before – rowing in rougher water, it’s just fun.”

Brian O’Leary (USA) – bronze

“It feels pretty great, but it kind of hurts right now. It’s intense; I was lucky to be in the first two quarterfinals because I had more time to rest than my French competitor (Evan Cailhau).”

Under 19 Coastal Women’s Solo (CW1x)

Hela Belhaj Mohamed (TUN) – gold

“I feel so happy because this is the second time I win the gold medal at the World Beach Sprint championships.”

Isla MacCallum (GBR) – silver

“I’m so happy, the adrenalin’s still there. Each race got better and better. I just can’t believe what’s happened.

“I started beach sprints in May coming over from flat water rowing, and to be here is absolutely amazing. It’s so good. Everyone’s one big team.”

Federica Chisena (ITA) – bronze

“So excited for this third. It’s so special, this win.

“I love this sport because it’s rebel, it’s so emotional.”

Coastal Mixed Double Sculls (CMix2x)

Esther Briz Zamorano (ESP) – gold

“(Defending the title is) definitely something that you aim for but you’re never confident that you’re going to achieve the goal, so we are really happy that our hard work was able to provide us with this result again.

“The conditions of the water were good, I enjoyed the waves a lot. The problem for me at least is the weather, it’s really cold and hard to warm up. But it was definitely a very enjoyable championship.

“It’s always an energy boost to see some of your teammates, some of the people you know, that have been working a lot to achieve their goal they had. It was really good for us to see that the team was doing well (after the Spanish CMix4x+ won gold).”

Charles Cousins (GBR) – silver

“We’ve had a great day. We have to do a bit of sprint training for next year. We talked about it (both rowers running for the finish) earlier; we both had a few niggles and Clare said ‘be prepared to run’, so I was ready to go.”

Clare Jamison (GBR) – silver

“Thinking back to where we were not many weeks ago, it’s great to be here and to achieve that.”

Ludovic Dubuis (FRA) – bronze

“It’s been a difficult weekend. We had trouble getting into the first race, and we weren’t on the right side of the draw, with meeting the Spaniards in the semifinal. But we felt good, we pulled ourselves together well, and from race to race we managed to improve our power in order to finally win this beautiful bronze medal.

“We’re happy to be able to win this first medal for France. We didn’t want to be fourth as well.”

Pavlina Flamikova (CZE)

“This is my first racing in coastal and it’s very funny racing, I like it.

“It’s a very good experience. When you’re training hard and too long you have a bad feeling sometimes. This racing is a happy feeling.”

Jackie Kiddle (NZL)

“It was hard. The first couple of waves we bobbed up and down a bit and I lost my seat, but managed to get it back. Then it was pretty flat so not too bad. The wash on the way back in, you really feel it drag your boat if you’re not on a wave.

“I tried to dive early in the hope that I was a little taller than I actually was, in the hope that I might hit the buzzer early.

“It has been really cool (racing with Matt Dunham). We’ve both had a real challenge finding doubles partners with the lightweight events, so it has been really cool to be able to do it together for once.”

Coastal Mixed Quadruple Sculls (CMix4x+)

Teresa Diaz Moreno (ESP) – gold

“It’s wonderful. It’s like history for me.

“The special is to be fast, hard, then to be a good runner. We need a good team. We are from the same club, we are friends. We row every year together since we were 10 years old.”

Matthew Dunham (NZL) – silver

“It’s awesome, it’s really unexpected for us.

“We have to watch the video to see how they (Spain) can turn the corner so tight.”

Emma Twigg (NZL) – silver

“It’s been an interesting few days, we’ve learned a lot in every race that we’ve been doing. That was an amazing result from the guys and we’re really stoked to be here and enjoying coastal rowing.

“Today the Spanish crew showed us how sprint rowing is done, and they obviously looked pretty slick.

“I’ve had a fantastic time in the past two weeks, it’s been amazing; people have been amazingly friendly so hopefully next year we’ll be back, wherever it is, and we’ll have learned a few things from this week.”

Morgan Hummel (USA) – bronze

“It means more than just the win. It’s a whole lifetime of training, almost.

“In flat water rowing it’s on a course, everyone is in the same wind and water, but in coastal rowing it’s a battle with the water and it’s so much fun.”

Jen Sorli (USA) – bronze

“This group’s been practising together every day for the last six weeks, and we’ve put in a lot of hard work, so it means a lot.

“You have to really push yourself through the pain, in a way. It takes a lot of bravery. If you look around you see the legs, there’s bruises to show.”