News

Posted: 16 May 2024

The inaugural Scottish Rowing Beach Sprint Championships, part of the Four Nations Beach Sprint Series, will be taking place this weekend on Saturday 18^th May at East Sands, St Andrews.

The Scottish Champs is the final event in the Four Nations Beach Sprints Series, meaning the pressure is on for those competing in the singles events who are looking to take home the overall crown! 

The prizegiving for the overall winners of the Four Nations Beach Sprint Series will be taking place at the end of the singles event with presentations being led by the team from Swift Racing.

There will be multiple championship racing available in Junior, Senior and Masters (40+) age groups across Coastal Singles (1x), Mixed Doubles (2x) and Mixed Quad Sculls (4x+). With a total of 79 crews entered across the categories, the Scottish Champs is shaping up to be a fantastic day of racing.

We are looking forward to welcoming not only our Scottish athletes but many international athletes to the event too, including competitors from Australia, Austria, England, France, Jersey and Wales. As providing pool boats is a normality in beach sprints this allows for athletes from across the world to access the event easier, not having to worry about the transportation of equipment. A huge thank you goes out to our partners at Swift Racing and Edinburgh University who will be supplying the boats this weekend.

Photo Credit: Iain Docwra

The championships will be held on the East Sands in St Andrews, one of the locations for the GB Coastal Sculling Academies. There will be athletes from four of the  Academies competing this weekend. The Coastal Sculling Academies identify and develop rowers with the potential to perform at international level in the Beach Sprint format, this is joint project supported by British Rowing, Welsh Rowing and Scottish Rowing following the recent inclusion of Beach Sprint rowing in the programme for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Find out more about the GB Coastal Sculling Academies here.

Photo Credit: Cameron Buchan

We are looking forward to hosting our first official Beach Sprint Championships and are very grateful to have partnered up with the Fife Council’s Sports and Leisure Trust to provide changing facilities and indoor space for the competitors within the East Sands Leisure Centre. We are also working with the University of St Andrews to assist with the running of the event and Abbeyford Leisure who are providing a discounted rate for a weekend stay at the St Andrews Holiday Park. Thank you to all our partners.

We would like to extend an invitation out to all our members to come along to spectate at the event and support all the competitors. Additionally, if you would like to get more involved in the event as a volunteer, we have a wide assortment of volunteer roles available as part of our Beach Team or Boat Hands Team. If you are interested and want to find out more please get in touch with Ronan Welch (ronan.welch@scottish-rowing.org.uk) to sign-up.

If you are interested in getting involved with Beach Sprints, get in touch with our Beach Sprint Pathways Coach, Iain Docwra at iain.docwra@scottish-rowing.org.uk.