Image Credit: World Rowing
For the second year in a row, the World Rowing Beach Sprints Finals will be held in Italy, the birthplace of the discipline, this year in the port city of Genoa on the Ligurian Riviera. The first Los Angeles Olympic cycle event has attracted a phenomenal 44 entries from all six continents, and they will fight it out for the highest award in the sport. With exciting, close racing guaranteed all weekend, this is not one to miss.
Adrian Miramon Quiroga (Spain)
Prior to the announcement of entries, the hot favourite in this event was Adrian Miramon Quiroga of Spain, winner of this event in two of its four previous editions, including 12 months ago; he is a stalwart on the coastal rowing scene. Winner of the World Championship in the long-distance coastal discipline on four occasions, he also picked up the inaugural world finals title in 2019. After some time away from beach sprints, he returned in 2023, winning this event, before picking up the European title this spring in Poland. He has the strength to compete on flatter water but thrives when the waves get big as he seeks to win his third beach sprint crown, having skipped the traditional format to focus on the new Olympic discipline.
Christopher Bak (United States)
As another previous champion racing this year’s event, Christopher Bak of the United States will have high expectations entering this weekend’s racing. After winning gold in 2022, his defence of that title last year began in the coxed quad, where the USA squad upgraded their bronze medal to gold, but a dose of food poisoning before the finals in the single meant that he was unable to put his best performance together and fell in the quarterfinal. This season, he is back with a vengeance, having dominated the national trials and then won gold at the American Cup in Peru; he returns to Italy with the sole focus of reclaiming this title. In the endurance coastal events, he placed eighth in the single but will hope to show some electric speed over the short sprint course this weekend.
Giovanni Ficarra (Italy)
The final former champion in the event, Giovanni Ficarra is once again able to race on home shores. On flat water, the rower has had great success winning senior world championship gold in the lightweight pair at the 2022 World Championships to go with his two world titles as an U23. But his success on the beaches has been immense. In 2021, he won the ‘triple crown’ of national, continental, and global titles in the single, and while he has yet to return to those highs, he lost to the eventual winner in both of the last two World Finals. This season, he lost in the first knockout round at the European Championships, which was a shock to the British Jerry Owen, but he will be looking to rebound with home water beneath him.
Leonart van Lierop (Netherlands)
While there is plenty of beach sprinting pedigree in this entry, there is no athlete with a stronger rowing resume than Leonart van Lierop, who returned from Paris having won gold in the quadruple sculls for the Netherlands, adding to the world championship title he won in the previous season. Obviously talented on the flat water, van Lierop made his coastal debut in the longer form of the sport, finishing 15th in the double alongside a crewmate from Paris and winning bronze in the quad with the further addition of Jan van der Bij from the silver medal-winning eight. While van Lierop obviously has great skill in the controlled conditions of classic rowing, his success may be dependent on how challenging the conditions are, which would likely favour the more experienced coastal rowers but with a winning habit, I would never count him out.
Mihai Chiruta (Romania)
Another athlete who made a quick turnaround from Paris is Romania’s Mihai Chiruta. On the flat water, Chiruta has never won a major championship medal but qualified in the quad at the Belgrade World Rowing Championships in 2023 before switching to the single this year. In that boat class, he won a close race at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta to qualify a spot for himself in Paris before placing seventh overall in a razor-tight finish to the B-final. On the coastal scene, he leads the first Romanian entry to this event as they explore the new Olympic offerings. Two very good sets of results for the Romanians followed Paris in Canada and Turkey, and they will want to continue that trend through Genoa this weekend.
Abdalla Ahmed (Sudan)
The final Paris Olympian in the field is Abdalla Ahmed of Sudan. One of only four athletes from the war-torn nation across the entire games, Ahmed had previously competed at the Belgrade World Rowing Championships as well as the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta within the classic version of the sport and was offered the final universality quota spot by the International Olympic Committee. He would finish 33rd in Paris but will race again in Gerona this weekend. Based in Tunisia, a country with some pedigree in this young discipline, he may have a better showing on the waves than on the flat water, but regardless of the outcome, he will be looking to fly the flag for Sudan and inspire others in his war-torn homeland.
Finlay Hamill (New Zealand)
While not an Olympian, the young New Zealander Finlay Hamill has had a fair bit of success in the classic discipline, having won silver in last year’s U23 World Rowing Championships in the lightweight single scull as well as racing in the same boat class at the senior World Rowing Championships as well. However, in his first international coastal event, he announced his presence to the world, dominating the men’s solos in the coastal endurance championships and finishing fifth in the double despite a crab during the race. In the beach sprint format, he is new to the international scene, but after winning two events at the national championships, he booked his place in Genoa and will be looking to compete with those more experienced in both disciplines of the sport.
Mohamed Rayen Hafsa (Tunisia)
With the Mediterranean origins of this sport, Tunisia has a strong history in the event. At the first-ever international beach sprint event, a Tunisian took silver in the men’s solo, and they have already managed to create a pathway from the junior to senior levels of the sport. Testament to this is the selection of Mohamed Rayen Hafsa, who, in 2022, won the gold medal in the junior men’s solos at the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals alongside a bronze in the mixed double. Stepping up to the senior level for the first time this year, he will be looking to carry on that success. Will the 20-year-old have the power to keep up with the established top-tier athletes in the sport over the short distance?
Goncalo Delgado (Portugal)
After his first season on the international scene, the Portuguese athlete Goncalo Delgado was not turning too many heads. Racing primarily in a mixed double, he fell in the first round of side-by-side racing at the European Championships and World Finals and at the Mediterranean Beach Games in the single category. With those results, in combination with a classic rowing career peaking with a bronze medal at the European University Championships, he would be easily passed over in this world-class field of 44 athletes. However, at the European Championships in June, he demonstrated that he had found a great vein of form, coming away with a silver medal in a strong field. If he can replicate that performance again this weekend, he will be in contention with some of the big names in the sport.
Jeremiah Owen (Great Britain)
The British entry in this event is Jerry Owen of Nottingham Rowing Club. A veteran of the discipline, he was part of the mixed quad that won bronze at the first running of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals and remained in the crew for the 2022 and 2023 campaigns, each time being knocked out in the quarterfinals. This season, he has been selected in the solos class and performed well in Poland, placing fourth at the European Championships. He will be excited to have a shot against world-class opposition this weekend.
Zygimantas Galisanskis (Lithuania)
The European champion from 2022, Lithuania’s Zygimantas Galisanskis, has managed to remain consistent in a sport where that is remarkably difficult to do so. Across the four major beach sprint championships in which he has competed, he is yet to miss out on the semifinal, placing fourth at the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals in 2021 and 2023 while adding a bronze medal to his collection at the European Championships this June. Away from the beach, he has a lengthy classic rowing career, qualifying for the Olympics at the 2015 World Rowing Championships at 22 years old but ultimately missing out on selection for Rio. Since then, he has regularly competed across the sculling boat classes with limited success, but with Olympic Games selection now available at this event, he may be looking to build his consistency into finally becoming an Olympian.
Joel Naukkarinen (Finland)
With many classic and coastal rowing stars taking part in Genoa, Finland has sent Joel Naukkarinen, a star in the indoor rowing scene. Winner of the Versa Challenge at the World Rowing Indoor Championships in both years it has been contested, holding the title of the world’s most versatile indoor rower. This versatility extends outdoors, being his country’s most experienced rower internationally in the classic form of the sport, having been selected for the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in each of the last three cycles. In endurance coastal rowing, he won the world championship bronze in the double last weekend, and in the beach sprints discipline he has also had great success. In 2022, he won World Championship bronze in this boat class in his first attempt, but he has yet to return to such heights at either the World or European level. He will be hoping that having already succeeded in Genoa, he has the power from the indoor season and the skill from two years in the discipline to fight for a medal once again this weekend.
Ioannis Kalandaridis (Greece)
In 2021, the Greek sculler Ioannis Kalandaridis announced himself on the beach sprint scene in a dramatic way. After missing out on qualification to Tokyo, he won bronze in both the men’s solo and mixed doubles at the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals in Portugal. However, he stepped away from the discipline, putting all his focus on qualifying for Paris in the double. However, at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta, he and his partner were a few lengths back and missed out again. Returning to the sport after three years away, he will have high expectations to reclaim the heights he reached at the second running of this event, but the sport has moved on in the last three years. Will he be able to keep up?
Prediction
With a mixture of those experienced in coastal rowing and those coming across at the end of very successful classic rowing seasons for their first try of beach sprints, how these two groups will compare is hard to predict. However, with four rounds of potential mishaps for the beginners to get through, I would predict that the advantage will lie with those with experience, and Adrian Miramon Quiroga of Spain will take the win.
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