World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals Wrap Up
The World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals took centre stage over the past four days on the international rowing calendar as beach sprint competitors from around the world descended on Qingdao, China.
Contested from Oct. 18-21, the Beach Sprint Finals took place at The Golden Beach in Qingdao West Coast New Area, renowned as the ‘No. 1 Beach in Asia.’ The regatta featured ten medal events in the junior, open, and inclusion categories with competitors from 52 nations. Three Canadian athletes participated in the regatta, including Carling Zeeman (CW1x, CMix2x), Julien Bahain (CM1x, CMix2x) and Autumn Prior (CJW1x). The competitors battled big waves and strong currents throughout the competition, which led to some spectacular visuals of their coastal boats crashing through the 250m out and back course.
Prior (Orillia Rowing Club) was the top Canadian finisher at the event, advancing to the quarterfinal round in the junior women’s solo. She started her regatta off strong with a sixth-place finish in the first time trial round, crossing the line in a time of 3:27.86 to advance to the knockout stage. She won her round of 16 matchup over Emily Pengelly of New Zealand to advance to the quarterfinals, where she faced off with eventual bronze medalist Magdalena Vlastnikova of Czechia. Vlastnikova outduelled Prior in the quarters, finishing five seconds ahead in a time of 3:05.62.
Zeeman (Sudbury Rowing Club) was racing in her second consecutive World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals and placed sixth in the time trial round (3:05.28) of the open women’s race to advance to the knockout stage, where she was defeated in the round of 16 by Esther Briz Zamorano of Spain. Zeeman and Bahain fell just shy of advancing to the knockout round in the mixed double after finishing in ninth place in the second time trial round, just .37 seconds behind the eighth-place qualifier. Bahain also missed out on the knockout stage after placing 15th in the second time trial round in the men’s solo.
Just two years away from beach sprints debut at the Olympic Games, China looks to be the top coastal rowing nation in the world after a strong performance in their home waters. They earned medals in eight of the ten events, including four gold, three silver, and one bronze to come out on top of the medal tally. Australia was next with four medals, followed by Spain and Germany with three apiece.
For full results from the World Rowing Beach Sprints visit World Rowing.
For the full regatta calendar in Ontario, visit the Row Ontario website.
Picture is property of World Rowing.
