The World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals was held from Oct. 25 to 27 at the International Water Sports Center of Yantian District, gathering nearly 100 rowing beach sprint athletes from 12 countries and regions including Canada, the Czech Republic, Spain and Hong Kong to compete with speed and passion on the waters of Dameisha. The World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals is the world’s first and the highest-level event of its kind.

Beach Sprint is a new and exciting race format where rowers sprint along the beach to their boats, row 250m out to sea in a slalom around three buoys, row back to the beach and sprint to the finish line. It is China’s first time hosting this sporting event.

China’s Wang Dongmei and Wen Tong beat France’s Ledard Pierrick and Alfred Edwidge to win a gold medal in the mixed double sculls final. Also on Saturday, China’s Guo Yizhu, Li Juanjuan, Mi Haoshuai, Zhang Guoting and Li Zekun beat the Spanish team to win the mixed coxed quadruple sculls final.

Hosted by the International Rowing Federation, the Chinese Rowing Association and the Yantian District People’s Government, the competition included four events, namely men’s single sculls, women’s single sculls, mixed double sculls and mixed quadruple sculls.

A signing ceremony pledging to build Yantian into a training base for a national rowing team was held Oct. 25.