News

Posted: 17th Sept 2024

This weekend saw the GB Beach Sprint Team, including a record number of Scottish athletes, take second place in the medal table at the 2024 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals, in Genoa, Italy. 

Accompanied by Beach Sprint Pathway Coach, Iain Docwra, six senior Scottish athletes flew out to Italy as part of the GB Rowing Team. This was the first year of the event since the announcement that the Beach Sprints discipline was to be added to the Los Angeles Olympic Games programme in 2028, resulting in strength in depth across all boat classes including many current and former Olympians.

The sea conditions on Friday proved to be confused and chaotic, leading to some high-profile crews becoming unstuck in the first round of time trials. As the day progressed, the sea state intensified forcing the Organising Committee to make the difficult decision to remove the beach sprint finish in favour of a virtual, in water finish point to preserve the boats and athletes.

The second round of time trials were also cancelled, leaving a few of the favourite crews going into the weekend disappointed in non-qualifying positions. The top 16 across all categories looked very different from previous events, which promised to throw up some tight battles in Saturday’s racing. 

Photo credit: Benedict Tufnell | British Rowing

Cameron Buchan (Edinburgh University Boat Club), Heather Gordon (Inverness Rowing Club) and cox Ryan Glymond (University of St Andrews Boat Club) raced in the Coastal Mixed Coxed Quad (CMix4x+) alongside experienced beach sprinter Charles Cousins of Mumbles and Leander Club’s Rosa Thomson in the bow seat. 

After disappointment last year, the CMix4x+ looked to make a fast start to their event, coming second place to France in the time trial, followed up by a strong performance against Japan in the last 16. 

The crew continued to learn and improve throughout their racing, and were too strong for Germany in the quarterfinals, before a tense sprint finish to the line saw them overcome a classy Spanish crew in the semi-final race to guarantee GB their first medal in this boat class since 2019. 

In the final, both GB and the Netherlands made powerful starts and were evenly matched up to the turning buoy. A tight turn and an incredible return row saw GB claim their first World title in this event.

 Photo credit: Benedict Tufnell | British Rowing

Cameron Buchan said it was a “great opportunity to get out there and see how fast we were compared to some of the world's best. The quad is one of those boats that comes together really quickly, and we were all confident everyone has each other’s back. All we had to do was go out there, do our best and enjoy it!”

Heather Gordon added, “At the start of the year I wasn’t even sure if I would be selected for GB, however thanks to the support of the Scottish Rowing Performance Programme I gained my first GB Vest! My aim was to put together the best racing I could and walking away with a world championship gold medal feels unbelievable! Knowing that I only started coastal rowing a year ago the progress has been immense. My team mates in the quad were all a great support helping me navigate my first international competition and I was so proud getting to stand next to all of them on that podium.”

Photo credit: Benedict Tufnell | British Rowing

The 2024 event saw the return of the Coastal PR3 Mixed Double Sculls inclusion event, where Colin Wallace (Deeside Scullers) sat in the bow seat assisted by his able-bodied partner, Jersey Rowing Club’s Natacha Searson. 

After a blisteringly quick time trial on Friday, Colin and Tish knew the quarter-final, semi-final and final stages of racing were going to be a challenge. Conservation of Colin's condition through the early rounds meant the pair could keep their powder dry until the USA show down in the A-Final. With an explosive exit off the beach from Tish and the boat handlers, the GB crew were up and they never looked back. Colin carved a beautiful line around the course and the pair beat former Paralympic silver medallist Danielle Hanson and partner Gary Rought of USA to claim their first senior gold medal at a World Rowing Beach Sprint Final.

Photo credit: Benedict Tufnell | British Rowing

Colin Wallace said, “Becoming World Champions with my doubles partner Tish Searson on Saturday out in Genoa at the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals was nothing short of incredible. I can’t thank Iain Docwra enough for the coaching, guidance and all-round support these last few weeks in prepping for this event, and to the rest of the support staff and team out there on race days themselves - without every single person going above and beyond we wouldn’t have achieved what we did. It was brilliant to see this para event included by World Rowing and it was great to be part of a huge Scottish contingent on the GB team, each of us supported by Scottish Rowing, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the future holds in both classic and coastal rowing.”

Returning to the GB Coastal Mixed Double (CMix2x) were Sam Scrimgeour (Glasgow Rowing Club) and Laura McKenzie (Glasgow University Boat Club), silver medal winners at both the Worlds event in Barletta in 2023 and the European Championships in Gdansk earlier this year.

The CMix2x is one of three new boat classes that will compete at LA 2028 Olympic Games making the category intensely competitive.

(As above) TT1 was run in 'exciting' conditions, the CMix2x were allowed to race the full course, launching and returning to the beach, this offered the full, chaotic, Beach Sprint experience to both spectators and competitors. 

The Mediterranean Sea was in charge and the World order reshuffled, the reigning World champion pairing of Kiddle and Dunham (NZL) were left outside the top 20, along with the USA crew and Dutch family double of Finn and Karoline Florijn, all eliminated.  The technically strong French pair topped the timing sheet, Laura and Sam stitched together a clean, safe run around the buoys landing them in 2nd place overnight. With historically quick crews succumbing to the harsh conditions, some headline battles were going to be thrown down early in the knockout rounds.

Photo credit: Benedict Tufnell | British Rowing

The GB crew drew the Italians in the first knockout round, this year's European Silver & Bronze medallists were about to show the world exactly why this event has been given Olympic status.

Both crews stormed off the beach and carried by a strong offshore breeze the crews were equal getting to the turning buoy.  Still level coming out of the turn it came down to who could match their hull speed best to the returning swell and ride the waves back.

The Italians. Their bows grounding in front, Silvia Tripi's feet hitting home soil, and she was away to the buzzer, Laura only a few meters in her wake. 

Tripi and Ceccarino of Italy went on to meet the strong Lithuanian crew in the A final, where Dominykas Jancionis and Martyna Kazlauskaite (LTU) added the World title to their European title gained in Gdansk in the summer.

Photo credit: Benedict Tufnell | British Rowing

For full results – head to the World Rowing Website here.