Tynemouth rowers in Beach Sprint Championships

The championships are taking place at Walvis Bay from December 2-4 with countries including Australia, Canada, England, Scotland, Wales, Jersey, Barbados, Bahamas, Namibia, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia and South Africa expected to attend.

Tynemouth Rowing Club members, Natacha Searson and Hal Flowerdew will be competing for Jersey and England respectively, having been chosen for their respective countries in trials earlier in the year.

Natacha is competing in the women’s singles category (CW1x) and in the Jersey relay team. Hal is in the mixed doubles (CMix2x) and will be competing in the England relay team as well.

Beach Sprints are a relatively new concept in the sport of rowing. Single, double and quad boats can take part in a round robin knockout format which follows a time trial to seed competitors.

Two boats compete in each race, where a rower from each boat will sprint around 20 - 30m on the beach from the start/finish line to the boat, they have to climb in as quickly as possible before setting off on a slalom course around three buoys over a distance of 250m, and returning to the beach.

The sport will feature in the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia, which is the first time that rowing will be in the Games for 40 years in any of its formats. Beach Sprints is also included on the programme for the 2023 World Beach Games in Bali, Indonesia, and the 2026 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal. It has also been formally proposed to the International Olympic Committee for inclusion in the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Last weekend Natacha and Hal took part in an intensive training camp at Tynemouth and were joined by Hal’s doubles partner, Melissa Shaw who rows at Shoreham Rowing Club.

Speaking about Hal and Natacha, their coach, Mark Hyson who is the Men’s Captain at Tynemouth RC said: “They thoroughly deserve their places in the England and Jersey teams and I’m looking forward to seeing what they achieve.”