Silver for U19 Crew at World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals 2025

Great Britain has won its first medal of the 2025 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals in Antalya, Turkiye.

Two excellent quarter and semi-final races from the U19 Coastal Men’s double sculls (CJM2x) saw Edwin Van Lopik and Valen Giachetto reach the final and win a silver medal in a close-fought battle with Germany.

Edwin said: “We’ve had a great time today! In that last race it was challenging to keep the boat going in the right direction and there was a lot going on. But we’ve trained in harder conditions than this and so it’s a testament to the strength of the GB programme that we’ve come away with a medal today.”

Valen added: “We knew we’d come back stronger after the time trial yesterday and to win the silver medal is just incredible.”

Lucy Whiteley and Emma Nicholson threw everything at Italy but narrowly missed the podium in the U19 Coastal Women’s double sculls (CJW2x) B final, with just 1.1 second splitting the crews on the buzzer. They were fourth overall.

James Cox had a tense wait to see if he was through to the last 16 of the Coastal Men’s Solo (CM1x). With the weather overcast and the sea creating more swell, he kept his head to place eighth in his second time trial with a time of 02:48.33, taking the last qualification spot. “I’m feeling good now that all the men have crossed the line”, he said, adding, “the Men’s Solo is probably the toughest category in the competition, so it was always going to be hard and I was a bit nervous at the end there watching them all come through. Luckily I got on the right side of it and I’m happy to be through.”

The Coastal Mixed double sculls (CMix2x) of Cameron Buchan and Natacha Searson attacked their second time trial to place fourth in a time of 02:27.45, and progress to the last 16. Cam said: “The idea was to tick the box, get through to the next round. And that’s what we’ve done.” Natacha added: “The conditions are different today so we had to do a bit more steering with the waves. I think we managed fairly well. Of course there’s room for improvement, but we’re excited to see what happens in the next races.”

Taking to the sea for the first time this event was 2024 World Champion Colin Wallace, who is with Megan Hewison in the Inclusion Mixed double sculls (INMix2x). They got off to a great start and Megan hit the buzzer in a time of 02:50.98. They watched as the other crews crossed the line but kept their lead to progress to the knockout stages. Speaking after the race, Colin said: “I’m so glad that there are Para opportunities at a high level and I think the more the better. We’ll just go out there and lay down the best we can and see what happens.”

Sol Chamberlain-Hyde, dominated his last 16 U19 Coastal Men’s Solo (CJM1x) encounter with Poland’s Adam Kowalczyk, taking the lead from start and hitting the buzzer in a time of 02:25.53, 13 seconds ahead. He’ll be back for the quarter finals on Saturday.

Isabel Soyinka was neck and neck with the Chinese athlete in the U19 Coastal Women’s Solo (CJW1x) last 16 head-to-head, but lost momentum and was second to the buzzer, missing out on a place in the last eight.

The U19 Coastal Mixed double sculls (CJMix2x) of Thomas Biddle and Olivia Hodgson had an unfortunate equipment issue from the start of their last 16 head-to-head which hindered their chances. They therefore finished behind the French and also missed out on the last eight.