ROWING: Success for Rugby rower in World Coastal Championships in China

A Rugby-based rower has just returned from China after a fortnight of successful competition in the World Coastal Rowing Championships after a year of hard training.

Tim Fenemore who rows for Hollowell Scullers was selected as Great Britain coach for the Beach Sprint World Championships in Shenzhen, China. He then competed himself in Hong Kong at the Offshore World Championships. There is talk of these exciting events becoming part of the 2024 Olympics as the crowds appreciate seeing competitors battling it out in waves, tides and winds to knock each other out of the heats and reach the finals, so there was a lot to play for.

Conditions were ideal in Shenzhen with the sun shining and large waves pumping in as competitors ran side by side down the beach, jumped in the boats and then slalomed 250m around buoys, before blasting back to the beach and running up the sand to dive on a buzzer at the finish line. With heats every seven minutes the action was fast and furious. The team did fantastically well against stiff opposition, particularly from China and France and won medals in two of the four events – a silver in the solo women's and a bronze in the mixed quad.

Then Tim travelled onwards to Hong Kong and competed in a solo and double, representing Great Britain and Hollowell Scullers in a field of 500 competitors from across the world at the Offshore Championships. The location of Victoria Harbour was stunning with the city’s skyscrapers as a backdrop. Sea conditions were described as a ‘washing machine’ with strong currents, big chop, fresh winds and ferries blasting backwards and forwards across the four kilometre course.

Racing was aggressive with sixteen crews battling it out around the course, leading to inevitable crashes in the lively sea conditions. Tim and his doubles partner were successful in achieving a 5th place in the B final of the mens double by avoiding the worst crashes and surfing the waves whenever possible – giving them a world ranking of 21. He went on to take 11th place in the solo men's event too, ranking him 27th in the world at the age of 55.

After the event Tim commented that the Great Britain team had performed incredibly well in the World Beach Sprint Championships, learning a huge amount from the competition that will help in preparing for the next event in Portugal in 2020. Having smashed his targets for 2019 and achieved better than hoped for world rankings against fellow athletes who are decades younger in Hong Kong, he is looking forward to 2020.

Rowing is a fantastic way to stay active and enjoy the outdoors. Anyone interested in taking it up should contact [email protected] or come along to Hollowell Scullers, based at Hollowell Sailing Club on Saturday mornings.