Wet weather and winning smiles on day one of the 2025 British Rowing Beach Sprint Championships
Saturday’s results capped off a glittering season for many coastal scullers, with clean races vying against capsizes and crabs for attention on the beach
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Day 1 of the British Rowing Beach Sprint Championships with sunshine and time trials, as competitors descended on Knoll Beach in Studland for the biggest ever rendition of the British Rowing Beach Sprint Championships.
Time trials went off smoothly, with rowers facing relatively flat conditions off the beach. By the time the competition hit knockouts both the wind and the waves had picked up, but the opinion of the rowers was near-unanimous – this is what they were here for.
Mixed Coxed Quads
Brand new to the British Rowing Beach Sprint Championships this year were the Mixed Coxed Quads, where the option for seat entries meant composite crews racing together for the first time, some of them trying out coastal rowing for the first time too!
Rachel Dulai, Sustainability Lead for British Rowing, was one of those. “What an experience that was!” She said after racing. “There was immediately great camaraderie in our crew and I couldn’t believe all the tactics that our super strategic cox, Ryan Gylmond, was giving us. I would recommend this to anyone, I’m so happy the ‘rock up and row’ option has been created!”
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Racing with Rachel was Ollie Owen of the Yorkshire Performance Development Academy, who had spent one session in a coastal boat before this weekend. “I just think this is so cool. Racing in this quad has been some of the most fun I’ve had racing this season.”
The newly-formed composite put up an incredible fight, but lost out to bronze to a composite from Sudbury RC and Folkstone RC. A boat of experienced coastal rowers won the first Championship title, crewed by Jerry Owen, Mckenna Simpson, Tash Phillips, Hall Flowerdew and Lara Brittain – representing Fishguard and Goodwick Jemima RC, Tynemouth RC and the University of London RC. Silver went to a composite of Lymington RC, Southsea RC, Trentham RC and Worcester RC, crewed by a whole host of rowers with junior international representation.
Coastal Women’s Doubles
The first medals went to the Exeter RC double of Eleanor Burke and her daughter Summer Harlow, who won the Coupe de la Jeunesse Beach Sprints in 2023. The race for gold was between Tynemouth’s crew of Mckenna Simpson and Sefi Ormson, and Heather Gordon (Inverness RC) and Meg Hewison (Molesey BC). In the end the Inverness / Molesey composite won the Championship title by over 6 seconds.
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Despite not taking the Championship title, silver medallists Tynemouth were thrilled with their result. “It’s nice to actually race in the proper rough conditions rather than it being flat!” said Mckenna.
“The final was close. It was fun. We executed what we wanted to do, so that’s all you can ask for really, isn’t it? There’s been a lot of fun – even with the rain, it’s been great racing.” said Sefi.
Coastal Open Solos
It came as no surprise that Four Nations Beach Sprint Series winner James Cox (Agecroft RC) ended up in the final race of the day for the Coastal Open Solos, pitted against fellow GB Beach Sprint Team alumni Gregor Hall of Stirling RC. Gregor Hall’s semi final saw him win an incredible dive to the buzzer against the eventual bronze medallist Tom Mitchell of the University of St Andrews BC – Tom in turn won out over Dan Jones of Leander Club in his medal race.
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In the final, James and Gregor left the beach together and were neck and neck until the turning buoy, but James’ tight line back to shore won him the Championship.
Coastal Open Masters Solos
Another Four Nations Series Championship winner took the Masters Championship title. Marc proved his dominance in all forms of coastal rowing this weekend after a series spent on top of the Endurance leaderboard, coming away with a gold Beach Sprint medal.
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Speaking after his race, Marc said: “This is the first beach sprint competition I’ve done of the year. I didn’t know how I’d, how I’d do, because obviously it’s just totally different from a 4 or 6K race. So I’m really happy with how it went, this was the icing on the cake of a great season.”
Peter Hardcastle, racing for Imperial Boat Club, raced against Marc and came away with silver. Phil McCorry of Bexhill took the bronze medal over Colin Wallace of the University of St Andrews BC, who was clapped over the line after a tumble out of the boat as he hit the beach.
Coastal Open Student Solos
Returning for the second year running, the student event allowed new talent to shine through on the beach. Scott Maccallum of Stathclyde Park RC won bronze, whilst Harris Bisset (University of St Andrews BC) took the gold medal and Tom Walker finished in silver.
Coastal Open Junior and J16 Solos
An incredible entry in the junior competition meant two events were run – Junior and J16.
Thomas Biddle of Southsea RC was a favourite going into the competition after his performance at the English, Scottish, Welsh and Jersey Beach Sprint Championships. He didn’t disappoint, winning the British Championship title seven seconds ahead of Gabe Bingham (Fishguard and Goodwick Jemima RC), whose loping run put him at advantage against his competitors throughout the knockout rounds. Coming over from West Cork in Ireland, Jack Hehir of Rosscarbery Rowing Club was the final medallist in bronze.
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In the younger age category, Dylan Balkwill of Hartpury University and College BC came in bronze, with Louie Walker of Christchurch RC winning the gold medal race. Silver went to Lucas Brook of Leeds Rowing Club, moving over to Beach Sprints after medalling at the British Rowing Club Championships in July.
Coastal Mixed Doubles
The Coastal Mixed Doubles always proves incredibly exciting racing, with composites often forming from talented Solo rowers to take on the challenge of a second event. The 2025 competition was no different, with GB Beach Sprint Team rower Cam Buchan doubling up with longtime coastal rower Natacha Searson of Jersey RC. It was gold for Cam and Tish, who raced for gold against Jerry Owen and Lara Brittain, representing Fishguard and Goodwick Jemima RC and Nottingham RC.
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Cam said: “Officially, this is our first week racing together, and I feel like each session, each day this week, we’ve just been stepping on and getting more and more synced up. Our time trial was clean, but there were things we could improve. Then in the first round of knockouts, we could improve our steering. Having a bit more experience together made us keep stepping on. We’re really happy with the result.”
Tish said: “Knockout round conditions were a bit of a contrast from this morning, so it’s been interesting! It’s been good to have a bit of both words. My dad is racing this weekend too – I hope that I’m still rowing on the sea at 63!”
In the bronze medal race, Tynemouth’s Hal Flowerdew and McKenna Simpson won out over Tash Phillips (University of London BC) and Adam Pritchard of Warrington RC.
Medals were presented by Interim CEO of British Rowing Mark Davies, who was incredibly impressed by the volunteers smiling through the afternoon’s rain. “What they’ve done in managing to put this on is extraordinary really, because we had to change the location due to weather conditions late in the game. It could easily have not happened. They’ve moved heaven and Earth to make it work, and then they’re here in the rain with smiles on their faces. It’s one thing when you’re in the boat and competing and racing in this, but when you’re standing on the beach – hats off to our volunteers. They’re doing a wonderful job, and we have all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves as a result.”
Racing will continue on Sunday as the Women’s events take centre stage. We’ll see the Women’s Solos, Student Solos, Masters Solos and Junior and J16 Solos. We’ll also see the Mixed Junior Doubles racing with the Open Doubles.
