World Rowing Coastal Championships Get Underway Friday

The 2023 World Rowing Coastal Championships gets underway on Friday in Barletta, Italy. The U.S. will have 30 athletes in 14 boats racing across seven boat classes, seven of whom were part of the team that brought home five medals at last weekend's 2023 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals.

The U.S. is set to have crews racing in each of the seven boat classes including the men's and women's solos, men's and women's double sculls, coastal mixed double sculls, and men's and women's quadruple sculls with coxswain.

Next Level Rowing's Christine Cavallo will represent the U.S. in the women's solo event. A multiple-time national team member, Cavallo raced the women's quadruple sculls with coxswain in 2022 and the mixed quadruple sculls with coxswain in 2021, where her crew won bronze. Cavallo won bronze in the women's solo at last weekend's 2023 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals. One of 30 entries, she'll race against last year's gold and silver medalists, France's Jessica Berra and Azerbaijan's Diana Dymchenko.

Christopher Bak, also of Next Level Rowing, will represent the U.S. in the men's solo event. Bak raced in the men's quadruple sculls with coxswain in both 2021 and 2022, coming in sixth and eighth, respectively. A multiple-time national team member, Bak won gold in the men's solo at the 2022 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals but was knocked out during quarterfinals in 2023. One of 49 entries, Bak will face off against last year's gold medalist, Adrian Quiroga, representing Ireland's Wicklow Rowing Club.

Three Next Level Rowing crews will represent the U.S. in the women's double sculls: Coral Kasden and Ilianna Romanzo, Jeni Sorli and Jillian Zieff, and Kelli Anne Van Der Moer and Olivia Farrar. Fresh off a successful stint at the 2023 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals, Kasden and Sorli won gold last weekend in the mixed quad and will now compete against each other and 30 other crews (32 total). Entries include defending world champions Janneke van der Meulen and Karien Robbers of the Netherlands.

Two crews will represent the U.S. in the men's double sculls: Next Level Rowing's Kory Rogers and Christopher Bak and Next Level Rowing's Luke Eward and Malachi Anderson. Also part of the crew that won gold last weekend in the mixed quad at the 2023 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals, Rogers and Bak will team up in the double. Fresh off a silver medal in the under 19 men's solo and under 19 mixed double sculls events, Anderson will team up with Eward, who raced at the 2023 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals but was knocked out in the a repechage for the under 19 men's double sculls. The two boats will face off against 41 other crews.

In the mixed double sculls, three U.S. crews will join a 40-boat race to the podium. The Next Level Rowing tandem of Rogers and Cavallo will team up for a chance at redemption after being knocked out in the quarterfinals at last weekend's 2023 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals. They'll race against two other U.S. crews, Next Level Rowing's Connor Sawyers and Alyssa Trebilcock and Next Level Rowing's Brooke Downes and Mason Nothaft, in addition to last year's silver and bronze medalists, Spain's Teresa Moreno with new partner Salvador Moreno and Ireland's Monika Dukarska with new partner Ronan Byrne.

In the women's quadruple sculls with coxswain, 2022 Beach Sprint National Team athletes Morgan Hummel and Peter Choi will join Julia Lonchar, Cara Stawicki, and Jillian Zieff, who raced the event last year. Stawicki and Zieff are both multiple-time U.S. Senior National Team members, while Lonchar represented the U.S. at the 2019 Pan American Games. The squad will face off against 22 other crews, including a second U.S. boat of Downes, Louisa Kolman, Sorli, Van Der Moer, and Kasden.

In the men's quadruple sculls with coxswain, 2021 Beach Sprint National Team member John Huppi will join returning boatmates Alexander Delsordo, Whitney Powell, and Philip Hoyle to represent Finish Line Shell Repair. Coastal newcomer and founder of Heroes' Movement, Michael Mckay, rounds out the boat. They'll go head-to-head against 25 other crews, including a second U.S. boat of Justin Stevens (2022 Senior National Team, lightweight men's pair), Thaddeus Babiec (2019 Pan American Games, men's eight), Michael Herman, longtime coastal rower Benjamin Booth, and Bennett Rossell (2021 Beach Sprint National Team, bronze in the mixed quadruple sculls with coxswain).

Racing at the 2023 World Rowing Coastal Championships will start on Friday, October 6 at 12:30 p.m. local time. Heats will take place on Friday and Saturday, with the first set of B finals scheduled for Saturday afternoon. A finals and remaining B finals will take place Sunday.

In total, more than 450 athletes from 32 nations are scheduled to compete in Barletta. Visit www.worldrowing.com for schedules, start lists, results, and live event updates. Racing will be livestreamed starting Saturday, October 7