Something’s building in Beach Sprints
Everyone's noticing it's getting harder to win at coastal nationals.
A few athletes are warming up on ergs in a tent just to the side of the Orewa Surf Club.
On the other side of the clubrooms, other competitors are working on their sprints down on the sand.
The final day of the New Zealand Beach Sprint Championships proved you've got to have all the disciplines down in an event that's getting more and more competitive.
The coastal rowing expertise of Emma Twigg is definitely helping keep her at the top.
She won the Open Women's Single over bestie Erin James. The two were reunited in their rowing at the World Beach Sprint champs in Turkiye last year, more than 20 years after they went to the junior worlds together in 2003.
Emma, 39, says she's locked in as far as trying to qualify for LA 2028 goes, when Coastals make their Olympic debut.
"We've got qualification next year, there'll be a continental qualifier and then world champs will be a qualifier as well. Then we start looking at what's going to happen in terms of prioritising boats for selection as we head into an LA format…It's going to get spicy."
Daily physio's keeping the body going and torrid competition from Erin's stoking the mental sharpness.
"Erin's obviously made some massive gains," says Emma. "We've been doing a lot of work on the course and in Tauranga."
Orewa showed that Emma and Erin's straight-line speed is pretty similar, Erin conceding crucial seconds on the turn back to the beach. Apart from going wide on one of the buoys going out, Emma's navigation and technical ability round the markers made the real difference.
Emma and Erin have a pretty cool history, they were reunited in their rowing at the World Beach Sprint champs in Turkiye last year, more than 20 years after they went to the junior worlds together in 2003.
Cambridge's Matt Dunham won the Men's Open Single against Waikato's Seb Fulton and was feeling the burn afterwards.
"I had to race my guts out to go toe-to-toe with Seb. Man, the whole field's just getting better and better."
Matt's among that field, hoping to get an invite to trials in a fortnight for the team to go to worlds.
He and Erin rowed the Mixed Double in Turkiye last year, and they combined for the Open Mixed event at Orewa, run down by Emma and Michael Brake.
The Men's Eight Olympic champion from Tokyo was pretty gassed afterwards. New priorities have put rowing on the back burner for now. New baby with wife, Michaela, and new job.
Between lungfuls of air, he said he's looking at the bigger picture for now.
"I love that I can just push as hard as I bloody can and give Matt and Erin a challenge…as long as I can hold my own and Twigg does her thing like the legend she is, that raises the standard for our whole team."
Emma and Erin racing head-to-head in the mixed double
It's been an unforgettable past few weeks for King's College athlete Charlie Field. Today was his first official training day as part of the New Zealand Under 19 Four selected to go to the worlds in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, in August. He got to celebrate by going out in a King's quad that included Josh Haskell, from their Maadi Cup and Springbok Shield winning crew at Ruataniwha last month.
"It's probably been the greatest couple of months of my life, I'd say. It's been amazing at school, so many people coming up and congratulating us…We had a full school assembly and a haka done to us…It's something I'll never forget."
The King's quad was looking like a battleship at full steam coming into the beach in the final of the U18 Boys' Quad against a quick Sacred Heart College crew.
Charlie had to pull the quick exit from the bow seat, gambled on an early jettison, got snagged by one of his oars for just a split second and then had to go toe-to-toe with Sacred's Xavier Roshan up the beach.
It took a photo finish to separate the crews with Sacred winning by just 0.25seconds
Sacred Heart College's Xavier Roshan gets to the buzzer just ahead of Charlie Field from King's College in the final of the Boys U18 Coxed Quad at the 2026 Rowing NZ Beach Sprint Championships. PHOTO: Chay Andrews.
The day started with the tide out, meaning a long run down to the boats across gluggy sand, and out by the turning markers, a huge flock of seagulls going nuts over a big boil-up of kahawai.
Bay of Plenty Coast's Arthur Crimmins thought he was on the set of a horror movie in his U18 Boys Single final against Takapuna Grammar's Leo Bacchus.
"I just had to mongrel it," says Arthur. "And those birds out there didn't make it any easier. That was really scary when I was going round the buoy, I thought I was going to get swooped on or something."
A reminder that we are always at the mercy of Mother Nature with Beach Sprints, as a bunch of Kahawai get some birds excited during racing.
It was a one-two finish for BOPC in the Girls U18 Single, ACG Tauranga students Emily Pengelly and Tallulah Kubaisi-Gallagher going head-to-head in the final.
They rowed the Under 17 Double at Maadi Regatta, finishing fifth and Emily was fifth in the A-Final of the U17 Single.
She got up on Tallulah today, finishing in 3min 25.69seconds. Emily and Amy Akehurst took out the Girls Under 18 Double, Tallulah and Hazel Church won the U17 Double.
For Emily the real take-home was to just keep improving "my coastal skills and get more time on the water and have a good time, because coastal is always such a good time and such a good community."
That experience is what brought Ben Pechan to New Zealand, representing Port Vila in Vanuatu. The 25-year-old lives in Sydney but gets back to Vanuatu and out on his coastal into the deep, open water offshore every few months.
He's been known to drag a fishing rod out there but is always a bit cautious about the size of fish (giant predator) he might hook.
In Sydney he works part-time creating content for Macquarie Bank's comms team, and moonlights in the weekend watching the NRL as a stats analyst.
But the main result he's after is a crack at the beach sprint worlds in China in October and, like a growing number of athletes around the globe, a spot in the LA Games in 2028.
Andy Hay
Andy Hay is a freelance producer, writer and Maadi Cup-winning coach. He was cox of the world champion New Zealand eight of 1982 and '83. He is NZ Olympian #446.
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Something’s building in Beach Sprints
Everyone's noticing it's getting harder to win at coastal nationals.
A few athletes are warming up on ergs in a tent just to the side of the Orewa Surf Club.
On the other side of the clubrooms, other competitors are working on their sprints down on the sand.
The final day of the New Zealand Beach Sprint Championships proved you've got to have all the disciplines down in an event that's getting more and more competitive.
The coastal rowing expertise of Emma Twigg is definitely helping keep her at the top.
She won the Open Women's Single over bestie Erin James. The two were reunited in their rowing at the World Beach Sprint champs in Turkiye last year, more than 20 years after they went to the junior worlds together in 2003.
Emma, 39, says she's locked in as far as trying to qualify for LA 2028 goes, when Coastals make their Olympic debut.
"We've got qualification next year, there'll be a continental qualifier and then world champs will be a qualifier as well. Then we start looking at what's going to happen in terms of prioritising boats for selection as we head into an LA format…It's going to get spicy."
Daily physio's keeping the body going and torrid competition from Erin's stoking the mental sharpness.
"Erin's obviously made some massive gains," says Emma. "We've been doing a lot of work on the course and in Tauranga."
Orewa showed that Emma and Erin's straight-line speed is pretty similar, Erin conceding crucial seconds on the turn back to the beach. Apart from going wide on one of the buoys going out, Emma's navigation and technical ability round the markers made the real difference.
Emma and Erin have a pretty cool history, they were reunited in their rowing at the World Beach Sprint champs in Turkiye last year, more than 20 years after they went to the junior worlds together in 2003.
Cambridge's Matt Dunham won the Men's Open Single against Waikato's Seb Fulton and was feeling the burn afterwards.
"I had to race my guts out to go toe-to-toe with Seb. Man, the whole field's just getting better and better."
Matt's among that field, hoping to get an invite to trials in a fortnight for the team to go to worlds.
He and Erin rowed the Mixed Double in Turkiye last year, and they combined for the Open Mixed event at Orewa, run down by Emma and Michael Brake.
The Men's Eight Olympic champion from Tokyo was pretty gassed afterwards. New priorities have put rowing on the back burner for now. New baby with wife, Michaela, and new job.
Between lungfuls of air, he said he's looking at the bigger picture for now.
"I love that I can just push as hard as I bloody can and give Matt and Erin a challenge…as long as I can hold my own and Twigg does her thing like the legend she is, that raises the standard for our whole team."
Emma and Erin racing head-to-head in the mixed double
It's been an unforgettable past few weeks for King's College athlete Charlie Field. Today was his first official training day as part of the New Zealand Under 19 Four selected to go to the worlds in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, in August. He got to celebrate by going out in a King's quad that included Josh Haskell, from their Maadi Cup and Springbok Shield winning crew at Ruataniwha last month.
"It's probably been the greatest couple of months of my life, I'd say. It's been amazing at school, so many people coming up and congratulating us…We had a full school assembly and a haka done to us…It's something I'll never forget."
The King's quad was looking like a battleship at full steam coming into the beach in the final of the U18 Boys' Quad against a quick Sacred Heart College crew.
Charlie had to pull the quick exit from the bow seat, gambled on an early jettison, got snagged by one of his oars for just a split second and then had to go toe-to-toe with Sacred's Xavier Roshan up the beach.
It took a photo finish to separate the crews with Sacred winning by just 0.25seconds
Sacred Heart College's Xavier Roshan gets to the buzzer just ahead of Charlie Field from King's College in the final of the Boys U18 Coxed Quad at the 2026 Rowing NZ Beach Sprint Championships. PHOTO: Chay Andrews.
The day started with the tide out, meaning a long run down to the boats across gluggy sand, and out by the turning markers, a huge flock of seagulls going nuts over a big boil-up of kahawai.
Bay of Plenty Coast's Arthur Crimmins thought he was on the set of a horror movie in his U18 Boys Single final against Takapuna Grammar's Leo Bacchus.
"I just had to mongrel it," says Arthur. "And those birds out there didn't make it any easier. That was really scary when I was going round the buoy, I thought I was going to get swooped on or something."
A reminder that we are always at the mercy of Mother Nature with Beach Sprints, as a bunch of Kahawai get some birds excited during racing.
It was a one-two finish for BOPC in the Girls U18 Single, ACG Tauranga students Emily Pengelly and Tallulah Kubaisi-Gallagher going head-to-head in the final.
They rowed the Under 17 Double at Maadi Regatta, finishing fifth and Emily was fifth in the A-Final of the U17 Single.
She got up on Tallulah today, finishing in 3min 25.69seconds. Emily and Amy Akehurst took out the Girls Under 18 Double, Tallulah and Hazel Church won the U17 Double.
For Emily the real take-home was to just keep improving "my coastal skills and get more time on the water and have a good time, because coastal is always such a good time and such a good community."
That experience is what brought Ben Pechan to New Zealand, representing Port Vila in Vanuatu. The 25-year-old lives in Sydney but gets back to Vanuatu and out on his coastal into the deep, open water offshore every few months.
He's been known to drag a fishing rod out there but is always a bit cautious about the size of fish (giant predator) he might hook.
In Sydney he works part-time creating content for Macquarie Bank's comms team, and moonlights in the weekend watching the NRL as a stats analyst.
But the main result he's after is a crack at the beach sprint worlds in China in October and, like a growing number of athletes around the globe, a spot in the LA Games in 2028.
Andy Hay
Andy Hay is a freelance producer, writer and Maadi Cup-winning coach. He was cox of the world champion New Zealand eight of 1982 and '83. He is NZ Olympian #446.
