Crews to Watch at the 2025 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals

The 2025 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals in Antalya, Türkiye will be the first World Championships for the discipline in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympiad.

This year’s edition has attracted record entries, with 342 athletes representing 55 nations competing across 10 boat classes. Here are the crews to watch.

Coastal Men’s Solo (CM1x)

40 entries

2024 champion: Christopher Bak (USA)

The USA’s Christopher Bak won the coastal men’s solo in 2022 and 2024, and returns for a tilt at a third title. But he faces stiff competition from a field packed with experience in both coastal and classic rowing. Among the beach sprint specialists, keep an eye on European champion James Cox (Great Britain), 2021 champion Giovanni Ficarra (Italy), European silver medallist Ander Martin (Spain), 2024 bronze medallist Zygimantas Galisanskis (Lithuania), and Finland’s Joel Naukkarinen. New Zealand’s Finlay Hamill, fresh off defending his Head of the Charles title and racing at the 2025 World Rowing Championships, returns to beach sprints to show his versatility. Several other classic rowing names will also take to the Turkish waves, including Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion Spencer Turrin of Australia, trying the solo after racing last year in the coastal mixed quadruple sculls.

Coastal Women’s Solo (CW1x)

33 entries

2024 champion: Magdalena Lobnig (AUT)

The coastal women’s solo could well see another thrilling encounter between 2024 champion Magdalena Lobnig of Austria – also the new European champion – and New Zealand’s Emma Twigg. Twigg took bronze last year to add to her cabinet of Olympic and classic rowing world medals. Expect European silver medallist Laura McKenzie (Great Britain) to also be in the mix, along with European bronze medallist Teresa Diaz Moreno (Spain). Other seasoned contenders include Christine Cavallo (USA), the 2023 world bronze medallist, 2019 and 2021 bronze medallist Zoi Fitsiou (Greece), returning to the coastal scene after a couple of seasons focusing on classic rowing, and Dutch sculler Janneke van der Meulen. And look out for Tokyo 2020 Olympic women’s single sculls silver medallist Anna Prakaten (Uzbekistan), dipping her toes into beach sprints for the first time.

Coastal Mixed Double Sculls (CMix2x)

33 entries

2024 champion: Dominykas Jancionis, Martyna Kazlauskaite (LTU)

The reigning champions, Dominykas Jancionis and Martyna Kazlauskaite of Lithuania, will seek to defend their title in 2025. The duo also picked up bronze at the European Rowing Beach Sprint Finals, where gold went to Portugal’s Afonso Duarte and Patricia Batista ahead of Franz Werner and Sophie Leupold of Germany. These established crews face some intriguing competition, including several boats made up of a coastal specialist combining with a newcomer to the scene. 2024 men’s solo champion Christopher Bak teams up with Sera Busse, a member of this year’s USA women’s quadruple sculls crew. Canadian veteran Aubrey Oldham is racing with Olympian Carling Zeeman, making her comeback on the international scene and her coastal racing debut. 2023 champion in this event, Matthew Dunham, has a new partner too in the shape of 39-year-old Erin James, who makes her rowing comeback 17 years after she last represented New Zealand. And Tunisia’s Khadija Krimi, experienced in both coastal and classic rowing, is on the hunt for a second world medal after her historic lightweight women’s double sculls silver at the 2025 World Rowing Championships.

Coastal Mixed Quadruple Sculls (CMix4x+)

15 entries

2024 champion: Rosa Thomson, Charles Cousins, Heather Gordon, Cam Buchan, Ryan Glymond (c), (GBR)

Two members of the defending champions are racing again this year in the coastal mixed quadruple sculls: Ryan Glymond and Heather Gordon are in a new combination for Great Britain. The Netherlands won silver in 2024, but return with an entirely changed line-up. Look out for Italy, who are combining coastal experience with serious classic clout: 2025 world champions and Paris 2024 silver medallists in the men’s quadruple sculls, Andrea Panizza and Giacomo Gentili. The USA crew also has plenty of beach sprints pedigree, including Annelise Hahl, stepping up to the seniors after her under 19 solo and women’s double sculls titles last year.

Inclusion Mixed Double Sculls (InMix2x)

6 entries

The inclusion mixed double sculls is being raced as a championship event for the first time, after a trial in Genoa and Barletta as the PR3 coastal mixed double sculls. Great Britain’s Colin Wallace won last year, and is back for a chance to claim his first world championship title, this time racing with Megan Hewison. The contenders include Austrian Paralympian Thomas Ebner, as well as crews from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and the USA.

Coastal Under 19 Men’s Solo (CJM1x)

35 entries

2024 champion: Yang Yuqi (CHN)

One medallist from the 2024 World Rowing Beach Sprint finals returns in the coastal under 19 men’s solo – Italian Lucio Fugazotto, who will be looking to upgrade to gold in his last year as a junior. Among those challenging Fugazotto is Great Britain’s Sol Chamberlain-Hyde, who won gold in the under 19 mixed double sculls in Genoa last year, and won the solo event at the recent European Rowing Beach Sprint Finals. European bronze and silver medallists Markus Viks (Estonia) and Lukas Krizek (Czechia) also start. The event includes the youngest competitor in Antalya, Uzbekistan’s Umarali Abdullaev, who just turned 15.

Coastal Under 19 Women’s Solo (CJW1x)

31 entries

2024 champion: Annelise Hahl (USA)

European Rowing Beach Sprint Finals champion Maria Lanciano (Italy) leads the field in the coastal under 19 women’s solos. She was fifth in Genoa last year. European bronze medallist Marlene Kuehr (Austria) is also on the Antalya start line. A number of the athletes in this event have also represented their nations in classic rowing; of the seven who raced at the 2025 Under 19 World Rowing Championships, Mia Tetiwa of Germany recorded the best result, seventh in the women’s pair.

Coastal Under 19 Men’s Double Sculls (CJM2x)

9 entries

2024 champion: Andres Washington, Marco Liarte (ESP)

Spain’s Marco Liarte returns to defend his coastal under 19 men’s double sculls title, with new partner Anton Ivanov in bow. Liarte is the most experienced of the field, with all the other athletes making their World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals debuts.

Coastal Under 19 Women’s Double Sculls (CJW2x)

9 entries

2024 champion: Annelise Hahl, Annalie Duncomb (USA)

Two bronze medallists from the 2024 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals are entered in the coastal under 19 women’s double sculls this year: Ukraine’s Liubov Sudarenkova, who was third in this event, and Carmen Jarabo of Spain, third in the mixed double sculls. Sudarenkova has a new partner for 2025, 16-year-old Solomiia Lozova. Lucy Whiteley (Great Britain) finished seventh in this event in Genoa, and Türkiye’s Melek Su Aktepe was 14th; both are back this time around.

Coastal Under 19 Mixed Double Sculls (CJMix2x)

31 entries

2024 champion: Sol Chamberlain-Hyde, Leah Saunders (GBR)

Great Britain have won the past two World Rowing Beach Sprint titles in the coastal under 19 mixed double sculls, and it falls upon Thomas Biddle and Olivia Hodgson to try and make it three in a row. Hodgson was ninth in the coastal under 19 women’s solo last year, but the British missed out on the semi-finals at the European Rowing Beach Sprint Finals. Austria are bringing back the same crew as in 2024, Nikolas Roidmayer and Caroline Schwendinger, who finished fifth last time out but were European silver medallists behind Türkiye’s Ali Asrin Oz and Efnan Sezgin, who have a great chance at a home gold medal.