Helen Glover relishes Wales World Championships as she backs Beach Sprint Rowing for a big future 

Twice Olympic champion Helen Glover has a new rowing focus – ready for action at a Wales World Championships that may well mark the start of an exciting journey for the sport, and she believes coastal rowing will only continue to grow around the UK and beyond.

This weekend Glover will compete in the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals hosted at Saundersfoot Harbour. Following an exciting recent announcement that coastal rowing is to be included in the 2026 Victoria Commonwealth Games, Beach Sprints are also eyeing a potential Olympic nomination for 2028.

As the sport grows fast, a home World Championships will continue to inspire more at a grassroots level to try the sport for the first time, whether they are transitioning from flat water rowing or coming into the sport with no experience. Reflecting on her journey into the sport as a relative newcomer herself, Helen praised the newer disciplines as fantastic additions to rowing’s proud tradition:

“In terms of a transition, it’s been easy because of people being welcoming and open minded. Everyone’s trying to learn about this sport because it’s just so fast growing, people want to make it work and make big things happen.

“It’s been really welcoming, training here in Wales. And it’s all kind of based around enjoying it, and everyone just having a great time and helping people learn about this new sport as quickly as they can.

When I first tried it, I wasn’t kind of deciding to make a transition or switch over. It was just a WhatsApp message that went round saying “who wants to try this out? It sounds fun.’

“I ended up going along to the occasional session, just to try a new fun type of rowing. I ended up getting selected for the world’s team! I never necessarily had it in my sights or thought this would be my new sport or anything like that. I just really enjoyed it, and every time I turned up there were more opportunities to try it again.

Anyone hoping to enter the sport at a grassroots level could well have a lot to aspire for in the near future, with many hoping to see it on an even bigger stage and an opportunity for rowing to attract wider and more diverse audiences. Helen said:

“I wouldn’t at all be surprised if it did end up at the Olympic Games. I think events like this weekend will be really important because it’ll showcase what the sport can do.

“Even I haven’t seen what it can do at this scale yet – I haven’t been to an event like this, an international event in all its glory. I think it will be really important to showcase to the world and rest of the UK what Beach Sprints can bring on that big scale.

“I think the accessibility thing is something that’s always an important aspect of Olympics sports, and Beach Sprints does have this in a really strong way. If you haven’t tried it before, it’s such a welcoming community. I’ve really experienced a lot of this feeling of appreciation of where you are, feeling lucky to be out on the waves.

I’ve always felt that with rowing but never more so than in coastal rowing.

It’s just an amazing sport to take up. It takes a lot of the skills, a lot of the fitness that you will already have, but it’ll just challenge you in different ways. Something about rowers like that challenge, they look for that challenge. Everything’s happening at once, at crazy speed. It’s manic – but it’s all good fun.”