Junior Double Sculls Wins Silver at World Beach Sprint Finals

Photo: USRowing

Oeiras, Portugal
Reporting by Tom Feaster, President at The Stewards Foundation, Inc

The junior mixed double sculls tandem of The Stewards Foundation’s Britt Wotovich (Redington Beach, Fla./Berkeley Preparatory School) and Brian O'Leary (Port Charlotte, Fla./Jesuit High School) took home the silver medal on Sunday, September 26, 2021 giving the U.S. its best finish at the 2021 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals in Oeiras, Portugal.

Fielding its first-ever Beach Sprint National Team, the U.S. came home with two medals this weekend, also winning bronze in the mixed coxed quadruple sculls on Saturday.

Wotovich and O'Leary opened Sunday's racing with a victory over Germany by just over a second in their quarterfinal, advancing to the semifinals against the hometown favorites from Portugal.

The duo then rowed a great race against the Portuguese crew in the second semifinal, executing a perfect turn as Portugal missed the buoy. The Americans cruised home on a straight line to lock up a medal and advance to the gold-medal race.

"The semifinal was definitely an experience," Wotovich said. "We were behind at the starting line and then we pulled it through in the finishing piece. That was honestly crazy to me that we would be in the A final to race for gold or silver."

In the final, France was able to run a clean course to bring home the gold in a 2:49.87. Wotovich and O'Leary finished in a 3:06.33.

"In our race against France, we knew that they were really quick," O'Leary said. "Our team had only gotten a bronze medal, and we knew that we had at least secured a medal and that was our goal. When we came up to the beach, I wasn't at all disappointed in the race. A silver medal – that's pretty great. (It's) the first silver medal the USA has ever gotten at Beach Sprints, so I was very happy even though we came up just short at the line."

The silver medal was the culmination of a great summer of training for the Florida high schoolers.

"We heard about this around May of this year, and we said, 'Well, let's give it a shot,'" O'Leary said. "States and regionals and nationals were coming to an end, and it was going to be a summer of long training. This really gave us a direction to point our training in. It was a great, fun experience."