The 2024 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals got underway on Friday in tricky conditions that challenged rowers’ strength and boat handling skills. The day was full of time trials to determine who would progress to the weekend’s knockout rounds and there were impressive performances across the board. The conditions meant that the second round of time trials had to be cancelled, and therefore the top 16 in each timetrial qualified for the knockout rounds.

Bak leads the way in coastal men’s solos

The coastal men’s solos were the first to take to the Genoa beach for their time trials, the surf proving manageable but challenging. The USA’s Christopher Bak, a coastal specialist, led the way with a time of 2:35.84 to progress directly through to Sunday’s knockout rounds. The 16 qualifiers included Paris 2024 Olympic Games men’s quadruple sculls champion Lennart van Lierop, who sneaked through in 15th place in his first attempt at beach sprints.

Van Lierop said: “It’s enjoyable, much different from the normal thing. It’s fun to be able to focus on more different things than just rowing really fast – the handling, the running, the jumping in and out of the boats and all that stuff.”

Nothing to split Twigg and Diaz

In the coastal women’s solos, five-time Olympian and 2022 World Rowing Beach Sprint champion Emma Twigg (New Zealand) snatched pole position, but Teresa Diaz Moreno of Spain was just 0.06 seconds behind her. Defending champion Janneke van der Meulen came in seventh. Ireland’s Monika Dukarska, who became world champion in the endurance event at the 2024 World Rowing Coastal Championships last weekend, missed out on the knockout rounds by 0.08 seconds after she finished 17th overall.

Elodie Ravera Scaramozzino of France, who was fifth, said: “The course is cool. In contrast to what we’ve seen in the last few days, it’s pretty good. I hope that it will stay like that. It’s still rowing, and especially when conditions are like this it’s OK, there’s not too much sea, it’s pretty flat.”

Defending champions knocked out

Mathis Nottelet and Maya Cornut of France posted the fastest time in the coastal mixed double sculls time trial, just ahead of last year’s silver medallists Laura McKenzie and Sam Scrimgeour of Great Britain, but 2023 champions Jackie Kiddle and Matt Dunham missed out on qualification for the knockout round after they finished 20th in the time trial. Also knocked out were Finn and Karolien Florijn of the Netherlands – the siblings, who both won gold medals at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, capsized as they landed and lost too much time.

McKenzie said: “It was good, tiring, but I think we timed the waves right and hopefully got a fast time.“

Quads in control

The coastal mixed quadruple sculls are the fastest and most powerful boats on the water and there were some classy crews racing with lots of pedigree. France posted the fastest time in the time trial, ahead of Great Britain and Spain; South Africa and Peru missed out on the knockout rounds.

Australia’s coxswain Hannah Cowap said: “It’s so fast and exhilarating. At the start I knocked the chair down and didn’t get on the chair, but other than that we nailed the bend, so pretty happy with it all around. Because it’s such a shorter distance it feels really fast, you have so many jobs to execute through the race. It’s very very different to still water.”

Times all-important in inclusion event

The last race of the day was the coastal PR3 mixed double sculls, an inclusion event with one PR3 classified athlete and one able-bodied athlete in each boat. Great Britain’s Natacha Searson and Colin Wallace topped the standings ahead of Italy.

Searson said: “It’s good to have (the PR3 event) all in the same event, to bring more awareness to people watching the event. And it’s great fun rowing with Colin as well, he’s great – an inspiration.”

Juniors riding the waves

The Under 19 events also produced plenty of tight racing. Australia shone across the board, posting the fastest time in the coastal under-19 mixed double sculls and coastal men’s under-19 double sculls and finishing high up in the other events. For the solos, the swell picked up – but the athletes coped well with the waves, despite a few of them having to restart their races after their starts were disrupted by the conditions. Czechia’s Lukas Kasik and the USA’s Annalise Hahl, a silver medallist last year, finished top of the standings in the solo boat classes.

Australia’s Astrid Thomas said: “It’s quite rough. It’s different for every rower, definitely a lot to adapt to and learn from. Keeps it interesting. It’s nice to get to use all our training to really put together a good race.”

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