World Rowing has launched a new Beach Sprint Series, giving the Olympic discipline two international stages in early 2027 and a route towards a larger global tour from 2029.
The announcement came on Monday, one day after the World Rowing Championships concluded in Amsterdam. Antalya in Türkiye will hold the opening event from 26 to 28 March 2027, followed by Yangjiang, China, provisionally scheduled for April or May. The two-stage model is intended to continue through 2028.
Each event will bring together 16 national teams to race the LA28 medal classes, the two solos and the mixed double, plus a mixed team relay. Travel, accommodation, meals and local transport will be covered, while athletes will compete for direct prize money.
In an exclusive interview with Row360, World Rowing executive director Vincent Gaillard described 2027 and 2028 as a foundation phase: more high-level racing before Los Angeles and evidence that Beach Sprints can sustain an international circuit beyond its Olympic debut.
“For the next two years, yes, we’re announcing two stages,” Gaillard said. “It’s kind of a foundation phase. We’re starting to build the future, paving the road for Los Angeles, but also providing more competition opportunities to teams.”
Antalya Starts the Series
The opening round will take place at Sorgun Çamiçi Beach on Antalya’s Mediterranean coast. Türkiye hosted the 2025 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals in the same region and will stage Beach Sprints at the 2027 European Games in İstanbul. Antalya will then host the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals again after the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
“Türkiye is becoming a very experienced host,” Gaillard said. “They’re a very committed country, a committed host to Beach Sprints.”
Yangjiang’s Luozhou Seaside Park, on Dajiao Bay, will be new to World Rowing competition but not to the Chinese Rowing Association. The venue has already held domestic Beach Sprint racing, including competition connected to the 2025 National Games of China.
Its date remains under discussion because the local tide and coastal conditions must be incorporated into the racing schedule. World Rowing expects the event to fall later in April or in May 2027.
The venues also provide geographical range at the outset. Türkiye has built experience through repeated international hosting, while China is investing in rowing and water sports through national and regional programmes.
World Rowing will hold the 2026 Beach Sprint Finals in Qingdao before the new series begins. Results there will supply the first seven qualifiers for Antalya.
Six-Person Teams and Funded Travel
Each round will feature 16 countries. Seven places will be earned from the previous World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals, with five continental places available to nations not already qualified. The host receives one guaranteed entry and World Rowing controls three wildcards.
Where a continental Beach Sprint regatta produces a clear qualifier, that event can determine the place. Other berths may be allocated through results from the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals or a separate continental process.
Each national delegation will contain six people: two female athletes, two male athletes and two support members – one who can work as coach, reserve and/or boat handler, and the other as a reserve and/or boat handler. The composition is deliberately compact.
“We’re intentionally trying to keep teams very lean,” Gaillard said. “To keep the costs down for the organising committee, but also to make it accessible for less rich teams.”
The hosting package also lowers costs. Participating teams will have international travel, accommodation, meals and local logistics paid for, removing costs that can prevent smaller federations from entering an additional international regatta.
A direct athlete prize fund is expected to come in just below CHF100,000 (approximately 91,000 GBP or 124,000 USD) across the competition, excluding travel and other hosting costs. World Rowing’s announcement says top-eight athletes in an event will receive prize money.
“There will be prize money,” Gaillard said. “That is far more unusual in rowing, or at least for World Rowing it is. All the money goes to the athletes.”
The approach follows elements of the Shanghai Sprints model for classic rowing, where World Rowing has combined funded participation with prize money and a compact invitational format. Gaillard said both competitions form part of an effort to create showcase events outside the established championship structure.
The Mixed Relay Joins the Programme
The Beach Sprint Series will use all three LA28 medal classes. Men and women compete separately in the C1x, while the mixed double brings one male and one female athlete together in the C2x.
Those coastal boat classes race over a short slalom course. Athletes begin on the sand, run to the water, launch through the surf and row around buoys before returning to the beach for a final sprint to the line.
The mixed team relay will broaden the Series programme beyond the Olympics. The format has been tested only on a limited basis and has not previously held a regular place within World Rowing’s senior international calendar. It will also feature at the European Games and Mediterranean Games.
“It’s important, a mixed relay, not a men’s or women’s relay,” Gaillard said. “You would not have seen much of it, but you will start seeing it.”
The Olympic programme is constrained by its athlete quota. LA28 will allocate 64 of rowing’s 502 quota places to Beach Sprints, with medals awarded in the two solos and mixed double. Gaillard hopes the relay can develop through other international competitions before a possible future Olympic proposal.
A Separate Window for Beach Sprints
The early-season dates mark a broader change in World Rowing’s calendar planning. Coastal competition has often been fitted around classic rowing, but the expansion of Beach Sprints makes that approach harder to sustain.
“First of all, we’re going to be looking at parallel calendars,” Gaillard said. “What we can no longer do as a federation is build our coastal rowing season depending on our classic rowing. They have to work whenever they have to work.”
World Rowing intends to retain the Beach Sprint Finals in the final quarter of the year. Placing the new series in the first and second quarters leaves space for continental championships, multi-sport Games and independently organised regattas.
It also avoids July and August, when the conditions can make beach competition uncomfortable for athletes and spectators. The 2027 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals are scheduled for 6–9 October in Oeiras, Portugal.
Gaillard said World Rowing did not want the Series to crowd out existing events in countries including Portugal, Italy and Germany. Supporting those regattas forms part of its Beach Sprint strategy, rather than bringing every competition under direct federation control.
“We don’t want, as much as possible, to conflict with them because we want them to grow,” he said. “We’re trying to have a more cohesive calendar that gives space for everyone.”
The discipline’s international schedule is already expanding through multi-sport events. Beach Sprints will make their Youth Olympic debut in Dakar later in 2026, with 96 athlete places. World Rowing also hopes to secure a place at the 2030 Commonwealth Games in India, although discussions are at an early stage.
The Brisbane Decision Comes Before LA28
The Series also has a political purpose. Beach Sprints is confirmed for Los Angeles, but its place at Brisbane 2032 will be decided before the discipline makes its senior Olympic debut.
Gaillard said World Rowing expects the IOC session to confirm the Brisbane programme during the second quarter of 2027. Classic rowing sits among the incumbent Olympic sports, while Beach Sprints will be assessed among candidate disciplines.
“We’re going full in to make sure that it stays on the Olympic programme for Brisbane,” he said. “The timing of this launch of the Beach Sprint Series is important because it shows the IOC one more proof point that this is getting super serious.”
Australia offers a strong sporting and geographical case for the discipline, but Gaillard accepted that its status is far less secure than classic rowing’s.
