Heat rises for history-making Sunday finals in Genoa

The last day of the 2024 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals in Genoa, Italy concluded on Sunday with five brilliant events, crowning champions from around the world. The USA topped the medal table after winning three gold medals.

Spain dethrone defending champions Italy

Italy’s Leonardo Bellomo and Pasquale Tamborrino came to Genoa as defending champions in the coastal under-19 men’s double sculls – but they left with silver, after an incredibly tight final against Spaniards Andres Washington Aguilar Bedon and Marco Liarte Samper. It was neck and neck throughout but Spain took a slight lead into the beach and Liarte was able to sprint to victory. In the bronze-medal race, Australia’s Samuel Forbes and Oscar Scheel Gamborg took a slight lead over Egypt on the outgoing leg and were able to extend that on the return leg to the beach.

Results: ESP, ITA, AUS

Aguilar said: “Amazing. The race was very good, the first part was a little bit harder, but with my teammate, everything is possible.”

Ukraine make history as USA claim gold

New Zealand had won the time trial of the coastal under-19 women’s double sculls, but disaster struck for the Kiwis in their quarterfinal after they missed a buoy and were awarded a 30-second penalty. That put Peru through to the semifinals, guaranteeing them their nation’s best-ever World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals finish. Ukraine then won their quarterfinal against Portugal, and they also achieved the best-ever finish for their nation as a result. But the final was between the USA and Spain, with Annalise Hahl in the USA boat picking up her second gold medal of the weekend following her win in the coastal under-19 women’s solo on Saturday, this time together with Annalie Duncomb. Spain’s Maria Angeles Macian and Zaira Nieto claimed silver, and Ukraine’s Liubov Sudarenkova and Yevheniia Ilienko took bronze, after a close contest with Peru.

Results: USA, ESP, UKR

Duncomb said: “This team is my family, Annalise (Hahl) is my sister, I love her so much. I would do anything for her.”

Forbes and Thomas win second medals, but Great Britain take gold

Australia’s Samuel Forbes had already won bronze in the junior men’s double sculls before he raced the coastal under-19 mixed double sculls final, while his partner Astrid Thomas won bronze on Saturday in the coastal under-19 women’s solo. In the gold-medal race against Great Britain, the Australians were in the race to the end – but Sol Chamberlain-Hyde hit the buzzer first after a strong row together with Leah Saunders. The all-Iberian bronze-medal contest saw a win for Spain’s Nicolas Iborra and Carmen Jarabo against Portugal’s Laura Faustino and Tomas Neves. It was Neves’ second B-final after the under-19 men’s solo on Saturday.

Results: GBR, AUS, ESP

Chamberlain-Hyde said: “You don’t want to get too optimistic, but deep down I knew we had it in us.”

Battle of the champions sees victory for Bak

The final of the coastal men’s solo came down to a race between the 2019 and 2023 champion, Spain’s Adrian Miramon Quiroga, and the 2022 champion Christopher Bak of the USA. Miramon had already defeated the 2023 silver medallist and 2021 champion Giovanni Ficarra of Italy in the quarterfinals. Bak had a bad start, but regained the lost ground and had more in the tank to make a perfect exit from the boat and take gold. Miramon won silver. Last year Lithuania’s Zygimantas Galisanskis lost the B-final to German Karl Schulze. This year, he faced Germany’s Franz Werner in the race for bronze, and made no mistakes to take his first medal on the third time of asking.

Result: USA, ESP, LTU

Bak said: “I have to give testament to Adrian. He’s been huge motivation for me, he’s a great, great competitor. He’s been my honestly number one motivation through every training session, every race, so I just want to say thank you to Adrian.”

Miramon said: “I am very happy. I am a phoenix, I never die. All people think I die, but I don’t die. Here, all people think no final – don’t worry. We have a final. In the last metres I don’t have more petrol in my body.”

Galisanskis said: “It’s my third bronze medal final in the world championship, and it’s the first time I win this. Two times before I was fourth. The most important for me was not to come fourth again. I wanted to win the semifinal, because it’s a very hard barrier to pass, but big waves and some mistakes, and I’m in the B-final.”

Lobnig ends regatta with historic gold

Both previous coastal women’s solo champions – 2022 champion Emma Twigg of New Zealand, and 2023 champion Janneke van der Meulen – were knocked out of the running for gold in the semifinals amid increasingly large swells. That paved the way for a showdown between Austria’s Magdalena Lobnig, who has shown her versatility with gold in the women’s double sculls at the 2024 World Rowing Coastal Championships to add to her flat-water achievements, and Briton Clare Jamison, a coastal specialist. Lobnig showed that she is equally as talented a coastal sculler as she is a classic sculler, excelling to beat Jamison by a fairly comfortable margin and win Austria’s first world beach sprints medal. Twigg took bronze in a strong showing against van der Meulen.

Results: AUT, GBR, NZL

Lobnig said: “The racing was so fierce. All these competitors, they’re amazing girls. The semifinal against Emma was super-tough, I had to really recover from that, but I got it on point in the final. I never gave up. Those were really tricky conditions, and I’m super-proud I could bring home the gold medal.”

Jamison said: “It’s pretty great to come out with a silver. It’s been a really good weekend – all a bit everywhere on Friday, but great to be able to race and race in such a strong field this year. Really excited to have all the Olympians with us heading into LA 2028.”

Twigg said: “It was probably one of my better races today, but I did have a bit longer to rest the legs between the semi. Lovely to be here, and some fierce racing, which is amazing. There’s all sorts going on, and in my previous races I had a bit of everything, so I’ve learned a huge amount. It’s very much a fact-finding mission for this sport at the moment.”