Reigning rowing World Champion in the Coastal Junior Mixed Doubles, Sol Chamberlain-Hyde, kick-started his 2025 Beach Sprints rowing season in early May at the Welsh Senior Championships in Fishguard, Wales.
Sol, 17, from Milford on Sea, took a chance of rowing up over his years to compete in the senior event, which was full of the most successful GB team athletes, namely Jerry Owen, Gregor Hall, Cameron Buchan and renowned Austrian rower Iurii Suchak.
Sol raced an excellent time trial, finishing fastest across the board in a time of 2 minutes 43 seconds; two seconds ahead of second position Jerry Owen. The second round saw Sol beating Harry Holme by half a minute and finishing with the third fastest time. Narrowly missing out on lane choice by just 300ths of a second left Sol in the far trickier and substantially more windy Lane 2 for the quarter finals, meaning a win for his competitor, Tom Mitchell and a knockout for Sol. The disparity in the wind conditions of the two racing lanes played havoc all day, with no athletes successfully winning their heat when placed in Lane 2. Given those conditions, Sol was thrilled to have achieved the fastest initial time trial time and the fastest racing time in Lane 2 throughout the day.
The Welsh Senior Beach Sprints Championships is part of British Rowing’s Four Nations Series, with racing held in Wales, England, Jersey, and Scotland throughout the summer season.
Sol jointly won the junior title last year with fellow GB athlete Xavier Jebb from Christchurch Rowing Club. Deciding to compete in this senior event ahead of the junior series launch has not only added positively to Sol’s Beach Sprints experience, but has left him currently in joint second place with Gregor Hall on the Senior men’s leaderboard, with six points each.
A proud member of Lymington Amateur Rowing Club, Sol recently triumphed at the National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships, securing a gold medal in the Yr13 category with a 2k time of 6 minutes and 27 seconds and the fastest time overall across over 8,000 competitors.
Whilst juggling the next few weeks of ‘A’ Level exams at Peter Symonds College in Winchester, the ex-Priestlands student has an exciting year ahead of him.
Sol is training hard and aiming once again for GB selection and the opportunity of being on the British Rowing U19 team. Sol was part of the GB Team last year and competed successfully at the World Championships in Italy, winning gold, gaining a silver medal at the prestigious Coupe de la Jeunesse in Spain and placing fourth at the European Championships in Poland with rowing partner Leah Saunders.
Whilst his coaching is covered by British Rowing, in order to facilitate his travelling to represent Team GB, Sol has to self-fund and is always looking for sponsorship opportunities.
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