Monday debrief: Diversity and excitement the hallmarks of beach sprints

The 2024 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals in Genoa were the first edition of the event to be held since it was confirmed that this exciting discipline would be introduced to the Olympic Games in four years’ time. The Genovese shore threw all sorts of challenging conditions at the athletes, and showcased some of the best that beach sprints can offer with exciting, close racing across three intense days.

Here’s the debrief.

More nations on the podium

This was the fifth edition of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals, and four nations won their first medals at this level: Australia, Austria, Lithuania and Ukraine. Meanwhile China’s Yang Yuqi won their first medal since 2019, and their first junior medal. There was definitely a sense that more nations are trying beach sprints out and fielding bigger, more carefully selected teams. Spain continue to shine, picking up more medals than any other nation, but they only won one gold medal this time around and the rest of the world is closing the gap.

You don’t need a coast to take part in beach sprints

While many of the nations competing in Genoa are blessed with lots of coastline on which to practise their skills, that doesn’t exclude landlocked countries from entering boats. We saw great performances from athletes from Austria, Czechia and Hungary, none of which have their own coastlines. In particular, Austrian star Magdalena Lobnig won gold in the women’s solo, a week after taking gold in the women’s double sculls at the World Rowing Coastal Championships. The basic skills, after all, remain the same as in classic rowing – hands, body, slide – and lakes and rivers can produce rough conditions too!

A taste of the Olympics

There was a veritable host of Olympians racing in Genoa – not just those who had competed at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games only a few weeks ago, but also some whose international flat-water careers had ended some time ago, and who have been tempted back into rowing by the excitement of beach sprints. Take Charles Cousins of Great Britain, who raced in the men’s quadruple sculls back in London 2012. Since 2022 Cousins has been racing coastal and beach sprints with some success, and he won his first world title in Genoa in the coastal mixed quadruple sculls. Alongside the likes of fellow London 2012 Olympian, Joe Sullivan of New Zealand, Cousins is the perfect example of someone finding a renewed love for the sport of rowing, just in a slightly different way.

Welcome the next generation

The Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games are four years away, and that gives plenty of time for the junior rowers racing in Genoa to develop and challenge for places on their nation’s Olympic beach sprint teams. Watch out for the likes of Annalise Hahl, who won two medals for the USA – gold in coastal under-19 women’s solo and gold alongside Annalie Duncomb in the double sculls. Some of the ‘senior’ rowers too are pretty young, like Mohamed Hafsa of Egypt who reached the quarterfinals of the men’s solo (aged 20), or the 21-year-old Federico Ceccarino who won mixed double sculls silver with Silvia Tripi for Italy. The beach sprints future is very bright.

Inclusion matters

This year the coastal PR3 mixed double sculls inclusion event was run for the second time, after a successful introduction in 2023. It attracted eight top-class entries, all consisting of one PR3-classified rower and one able-bodied athlete. Italy combined Marco Frank, fresh out of their Paralympic PR3 coxed four, with 2022 world and European lightweight women’s quadruple sculls champion Arianna Noseda. The USA entered Tokyo 2020 Paralympic silver medallist Danielle Hansen, rowing with up-and-coming Gary Rought. Olympian Lily Triggs teamed up with 2023 champion Macintyre Russell for Australia. As a result, the quality of racing was high, and coming off the back of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, the importance of the event was not lost on the athletes.

Hansen said: “Any time that we can have more inclusion in any sport it’s going to be very impactful in a positive way, so having this event here this year is meaningful in a lot of different ways.”

Only beach vibes

And finally, although the forecast of LA 2028 is certainly beginning to make beach sprints that bit more serious, it’s easy to be a little relaxed under an Italian sun. The Netherlands’ Marieke Keijser declared that there was “only beach vibes” after she and her crewmates went for an impromptu swim following their mixed quadruple sculls silver medal, and pretty much as soon as anyone finished racing, the turquoise waters of the Mediterranean and a few scoops of gelato were calling. For this weekend at least, everyone was channelling a little bit of Barbie’s Ken: their job was beach.