St Andrews Students Compete at European Coastal Rowing Championships

Sprint down the beach and jump into a boat being rocked by the waves. Teammates holding it in place as you pull hard on the oars for the first time. Raw power: legs, core, back, arms, blasting through relentless waves trying to smash you straight back to shore. Past the breaker zone and you’re flat out. Red-lining it to a buoy 250 metres away. About turn, stopping all momentum, then back into the hurt locker, more speed, more reps, more pain.

Jump out of the boat and sprint up the beach once more to the finish line. It’s all over in three minutes, but it feels like 30. 

Every race is one versus one. Lose, and you’re going home. Win, and you race again in twenty. Such is the brutal nature of beach sprint rowing. 

This September, four selected St Andrews students represented their countries at the European Rowing Coastal and Beach Sprint Championships in La Línea, Spain.

Director of Rowing at St Andrews, Lewis McCue — who was named Scottish Performance Rowing Coach of the Year at the 2024-25 Scottish Rowing Awards — was also selected as a coach for Team GB for the second year in a row. 

As the coach is involved in launching the rower into the swell, guiding where to steer, and when to turn, McCue is not only the coach, but part of the team.

Cam Buchan, part of the GB team, qualified for the knockouts in Spain after an exceptional time trial. Buchan followed this up with a clinical display in the first knockout round, defeating Norway’s Andreas Soerskaar. Despite being one of the strongest competitors at the event, Buchan lost his quarter-final, bringing an abrupt end to his time at the championships. 

Collin Wallace, a gold medal winner at the 2025 World Championships, represented GB in the Inclusion Mixed Double Sculls. This involves a team of two: one para-athlete, Wallace, and one non-disabled athlete, Clare Jamison, with the para-athlete starting in the boat. The British pair secured a silver medal after a well-contested final against home favourites Spain. 

Earlier the same day, two more St Andrews athletes — Rosa Thomson, representing Estonia, and Adam Perout, representing Czechia — took part in the mixed double sculls. Both had success in the time trial, placing fourth and first respectively, though the next day they were both defeated in the first knockout round.

This rapidly growing discipline within the sport of rowing is gaining popularity globally. The University of St Andrews is accredited as one of the elite GB Beach Sprint Performance Development Academies. This is not simply because of its outstanding coaching staff, but also because the location itself, East Sands, is an ideal setting to develop world-class rowers. 

Rowing coastal beach sprints will make its debut at the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028. It would come as no surprise to see rowers trained on the shores of Fife making waves in LA. I, for one, will definitely be watching. 

Photo Credit: Adam Perout