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 37 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.
Janneke van der Meulen (Netherlands)
In Barletta last summer, Janneke van der Meulen could not put a foot wrong. She left the Adriatic coast with two coastal endurance titles and the crown in this event as she swept home to gold in dominant fashion. This was the peak of a career transition for the Dutch sculler who had spent a couple of years within the TeamNL classic rowing setup. Then, in 2018, she attended the Coastal Championship in Canada whilst visiting family in the area and walked away with a gold medal. Since then, she has been re-energised in the sport, rising to the heights we saw last year. The coastal championships were not quite so fortunate this season as she would miss the A-final in the single and a bad turn in the double cost her gold there. However, with one title left to defend in Genoa, she will not go down easily against this star-studded field.
Emma Twigg (New Zealand)
One of the icons of rowing in recent years, Emma Twigg of New Zealand, has been a feature at the top end of the sport since making her Olympic debut in Beijing. After finishing fourth in London and Rio, she won Olympic gold in Tokyo and followed it up with silver in Paris. A seven-time medallist at the classic World Rowing Championships, she added two more in her last foray into beach sprints when she won this event at the 2022 world finals in Wales, alongside a silver in the mixed quad. The only chink in her armour as an unstoppable force this weekend comes from Wales when the weather stopped the finals in the women’s solo events, and medals were awarded based on times in the first knockout round. However, if there is any doubt in her ability to perform in high-pressure moments, her impressive medal collection should put any doubts to bed.
Elodie Ravera Scaramozzino (France)
Off the back of a home Olympic Games where she finished fifth in the double for France, Elodie Ravera Scaramozzino returns to the beach sprints where she starred last season. The three-time Olympian debuted her international beach sprints last season and made a splash within the community. She took home the gold medal in the European Championships and won silver at the subsequent world finals. While she had some experience in coastal endurance rowing, this was a new format, and coming away with such successful results is very impressive. This year, she will be looking to upgrade that silver, and with her history, there is a good chance of that happening.
Magdalena Lobnig (Austria)
Another elite classic rower on the entry list is the Austrian triple Olympian Magdalena Lobnig, the bronze medallist in the single in Tokyo. A senior international since 2008, Lobnig has been a stalwart on the classic rowing scene for Austria, having won two World Rowing Championships and four European Rowing Championship medals to go with the Olympic medal from Tokyo. However, she is newer to the coastal rowing scene, having made her debut last year in the endurance format when she won silver in the double with her sister, a medal they upgraded to gold last weekend. She has yet to race in the beach sprints format on an international scale, but with the Austrian selectors opting to give her this seat over the European champion, there is some significant faith in Lobnig entering this weekend.
Federica Cesarini (Italy)
Olympic champion in the lightweight double at the Tokyo Olympic Games, Federica Cesarini’s medal ambitions came to a screeching halt after the Italian double failed to secure a place on the start line in Paris. However, she has chosen to take this opportunity to switch across to beach sprints, as was suggested following the removal of lightweight rowing from the Olympic Games. This will mark her debut on the waves against international competition, having won the selection regatta 200km down the Ligurian coast. With relative inexperience in the format, she may face tough challenges in the waves against the best in the world, but if she can put up a good performance, she may have the opportunity to save a disappointing season.
Diana Dymchenko (Azerbaijan)
The fourth Paris Olympian in the entry is Diana Dymchenko of Azerbaijan. After qualifying for the Games through the European continental qualifier at her third attempt, the former Ukraine international would finish 17th in the event in Paris. Alongside her classic rowing career, Dymchenko has been a familiar face in coastal rowing, winning medals in this class in the coastal endurance format at six world championships in a row including three golds. This run ended last weekend in Genoa as despite winning her heat, she did not line up for the final in the afternoon. This weekend, she will make her world finals debut in the beach sprints format, and if she can bounce back from the disappointment last week, she may be able to tame the waves and prove her two kilometre explosivity on the shorter format.
Christine Cavallo (United States)
The bronze medallist from this event twelve months ago, Christine Cavallo returns to the women’s solo for the United States again this year. The Florida-based athlete has a varied career behind her, having won the IRA championships with the Stanford lightweights and a Boat Race in Oxford blue. Alongside that, she has carved out a position within the US beach sprints squad. In 2021, she raced in the mixed quad, winning gold; she was knocked out in the quarterfinals in 2022 in the mixed double and then won bronze in the single last year. With some stability in the boat class this year after dominating the national trials, she will be looking to back up that performance in a powerful field.
Monika Dukarska (Ireland)
Another former Olympian, Monika Dukarska, made a big turn towards the coastal disciplines after competing in Tokyo, making solid progress through the ranks. In the endurance coastal format, she improved from failing to finish in 2021 and placing 13th in 2022 all the way to winning the world title in 2023 and defending it last weekend. In the beach sprints, Dukarska has had more difficulty; the 2023 season was a high watermark as she would win bronze at the European championships and finish fourth in the world finals. This season, Europeans was more of a challenge as she would lose in the repechage. Hoping to build on that performance and her gold medal last weekend, the Irish sculler will look to be competitive in the later rounds against those switching to the waves far later.
Clare Jamison (Great Britain)
The British entry in this category is Clare Jamison of Christchurch Rowing Club. Another Oxford blue, she won a silver medal in her first international outing in the mixed double alongside Charles Cousins on home water in 2022 before switching to the solo for the following season, losing in the quarterfinals at both the European championships and world finals. This year, she returned to the boat class and after making the semifinals at the European championships in Poland, she hopes to improve on the world stage as well.
Patricia Batista (Portugal)
Before this season, it would be easy to underestimate Portugal’s Patricia Batista. After three participations in the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals, she had won only one round and with no international classic rowing appearances since 21st place in the 2010 Youth Olympic Games, there was not much promise to write about. However, at the European championships this June, she showed what she’s capable of when she has a good day. Winning three rounds against top competition, she fell just short of the title, but taking home a silver medal put a target on her back going into the world finals, where the question remains if she can replicate that performance. Given the strength of the field, some doubts remain, but she certainly will not be written off by anyone.
Teresa Diaz Moreno (Spain)
Teresa Diaz Moreno of Spain is new to this category, but she is not a novice in Beach Sprint rowing. Twice a winner at the world finals in the mixed coxed quad as part of an impressive Spanish lineup, she skipped last year’s finals, having made the less common transition from beach sprints to lightweight rowing to seek qualification for its final Olympic outing in Paris. This goal was not reached as the crew finished sixth in the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta, but she has now returned to the beach to seek her Olympic goal through the newest discipline. It remains to be seen how well her golden experience in the larger boats can transfer to the solo category, but it is worth noting that her crew did defeat Emma Twigg in the 2022 gold medal race, so she knows she can match anyone on her day.
Prediction
In many events at these championships, the prediction is a balance between the raw rowing talent of experienced classic rowers against the skills inherent to the established names in the beach sprint discipline. However, Emma Twigg of New Zealand ticks both boxes in this one and will enter the weekend as a heavy favourite.
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