Across The Line: Dive for the finish at the British Rowing Beach Sprint Championships and the Lea
Find out what’s been going on across the UK, including the action from the British Rowing Beach Sprint Championships and Lea Mans
Credit: AllMarkOne
We’re Across The Line! Join us to look back on a belter of a weekend of racing from across the UK.
Sun, Surf, and spectacular sprint finishes
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.
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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Clear skies greeted attendees at Knoll Beach, Studland to set up for day two of the British Rowing Beach Sprint Championships. Wind was to be the challenge of the day, as Saturday’s showers gave way to bursts of sunshine and the first time trialists hit the beach to kick off the racing. GB Beach Sprint Team rower Laura McKenzie dove to gold in the Women’s Solo, whilst the junior events saw club mates going head-to-head in multiple gold-medal finals.
Lights out and away we go at Lea Mans
Sunday, 31 August saw the third iteration of the recreational rowing event, ‘Lea Mans.’ Hosted by the Lea Rowing Club in Hackney, it marked the end of the Thames Valley Explorer League (TVEL) 2025 season.
With a slightly later start, the day began in a very civilised fashion, with umpires from Eastern, Thames, and even the East Midlands region sitting down for elevenses and a detailed briefing so that they understood the day, even if some competitors were still unsure of the complexities.
Fifteen crews from nine clubs raced in stable boats provided by Lea RC across four divisions in a three-phase event, comprising an obstacle course, a time trial, and finally, some side-by-side racing. The obstacles provided entertainment and peril for participants and spectators alike, as crews sprinted to and from their boats, collected quoits, pirouetted, and acrobatically swapped seats before racing to the finish line.
The slalom around buoys, around 1.5 boat lengths apart, was particularly challenging for some crews, but others sailed through it. As the OC hoped, the fastest crew over phases one and two was not necessarily the fastest through the obstacles, and in the beginner event, the medals went to Guilford RC. Also in the beginner category, the top two places were taken by Spitfire BC with ‘Tyler’ reversing a three-second deficit to ‘Hart’ in the A final.
In the experienced event, the podium saw the Lea and London Otters RC share third place, while Weyfarers RC finished second, leaving Spitfire RC ‘Latymer’ as the overall winners.
The Lea was delighted to host established TVEL crews as well as several from clubs new to this style of regatta. They hope to be able to continue to expand and enjoy recreational events like Lea Mans in the future.
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That’s all from Across The Line this week!
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