Katie brings Gold medals home for Wales in international rowing competitions

A Sixth Former competed for Wales in International Rowing competitions and came home with Gold medals for her country.  

Katie H (MSH, UVI) competed for Wales in the Home International Rowing Regatta on Lough Rynn in Ireland in July and last weekend took part in the Home International Beach Sprint Regatta in Saundersfoot.  

Katie said: “To be picked to row for your country is always special, and to be picked twice in two such different formats felt amazing.   

“I’m really grateful to Will King, the National Coach for Wales for encouraging me to try Beach Sprints and also to my previous Shrewsbury Coach Iain Docwra who is now the National Coach for Scotland’s Beach Sprints team for supporting me. Beach Sprints is very different from river rowing – it can get quite rough on the sea and combining sprinting with rowing is a bit of a challenge too.  

“At Lough Rynn in Ireland, we had a brilliant 8 and our strategy in the Sprint 500 was to max our rate from the start to try to win it in the first 100 meters.  We got away really clean and fast and managed to hold on - just.  

“Winning gold is always great but beating the best of Scotland, Ireland and England is really special. We are a younger team and are really close, so it will be exciting to see what we can do next year.  

“The Beach Sprints at Saundersfoot in Wales is a fun format and the coaches and boat handlers did a fantastic job of teaching us how to row a coastal boat, making our process right and getting us ready.  

“By the time of the championships, we suspected that we might do well, but didn’t really imagine how well.  With many of the England Team going to Worlds at the end of the month, we really showed them what we were made of.   

“It was incredible to win 2 Golds, 3 Silvers and a Bronze in front of our home crowd to be the first Welsh Team to win any Home International competition despite trying for 61 years! It was so exceptional that it made our coaches cry!  

“My final against the European Champion was really tough with only 10 minutes to recover from my semi-final, whereas they had secured a bye to the final from the time trials 5 hours earlier.  Although we were neck and neck at the halfway point, I ran out of steam a bit on the way in, but a Silver medal was a great finish to my first ever Beach Sprint competition and I can’t wait to race again.   

“Representing your country is all about pride and you feel so responsible! When you wear the Red Dragon of Wales you get a real sense of being part of something bigger than yourself.  Especially when you compete on home territory with such an incredible atmosphere.  

“I am very excited for my journey ahead in costal rowing. As it is a fairly new sport in general, there is lots to learn and lots of opportunities. With the Commonwealths around the corner in 2026 I am setting myself a personal goal of trying to make the Welsh team again and represent my country in Australia.”