World’s best Beach Sprinters battle the waves for medals in Barletta

In what is a hugely growing area of the sport, Italy’s Barletta Beach provided beautiful racing conditions as the first of the medals at the 2023 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals were awarded today. Across the four boat classes raced today, all four gold medals were won by different nations – with six nations earning medals overall.

The beach grandstands were packed with supporters as the best beach sprint rowers from around the world provided hours of entertainment with fast and furious racing.

To the delight of the home crowd, the first gold medal went to Italy when Luca Fugazzotto worked his way through the rounds of racing in the U19 Men’s Solo to make the final and then beat the USA’s Malachi Anderson. For Fugazzoto, this matched the gold that he won at the European Rowing Beach Sprint Championships just a few weeks ago, and for Italy, it was their first-ever world medal in this boat class.

History was made in the U19 Women’s Solo when Tunisia’s Hela Belhaje Mohamed won gold for the third consecutive year. Clearly an athlete to keep an eye on as this sport continues to evolve, Hela secured a comfortable victory over Annelise Hahl of the USA in the final to be crowned World Champion once again. It was a second silver for the USA.

With several returners from the bronze medal-winning crew from last year, the USA mixed quad was determined to go even better this year and it was clear throughout the racing that they were on target. They beat last year’s silver medallists New Zealand in the semifinal to secure their place in the Final A where on the return leg, they did enough to become World Champions.

The last boat class to race today was the mixed double sculls and the three rounds of racing provided all sorts of drama. The second quarterfinal saw Great Britain up against Tunisia and resulted in one of the closest races ever in international beach sprint racing which required a lengthy review. The British were eventually confirmed as winners by 0.10 seconds. After overcoming the home nation in the semifinals, Great Britain’s Laura McKenzie and Sam Scrimgeour came up against New Zealand in the Final A. It was another incredibly close race but this time the British were second to the buzzer and Matt Dunham and Jackie Kiddle were crowned the World Champions.

Racing will continue tomorrow, the programme will start with Last 16 for the CJMix2x, CM1x and CW1x before moving into the Last 8 for the remaining 5 boat classes. All races will be livestreamed on www.worldrowing.com.

You can find full results and reactions on worldrowing.com.