Youth Stars Shine at the Australian and Oceania Beach Sprint Championships

This year’s Australian and Oceania Beach Sprint Championships, held Currumbin Creek in Queensland, Australia, featured more than 190 competitors, including rowers from French Polynesia, American Samoa, Samoa and Vanuatu, racing in more than 20 different events. But the highlight may well have been the success of some of Australia’s youngest beach sprint rowers.

Samuel Forbes topped the overall athlete medal table, winning the senior and under-23 men’s solos, the senior men’s double with Oscar Scheel-Gamborg, the PR3 mixed double with Wallis Russell and the U23 mixed double with Astrid Thomas. Forbes has raced three times for Australia at the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals, has come home with a medal from each event (silver from the 2024 junior mixed double, plus bronze in both the 2024 junior men’s double and 2025 senior mixed quad), and seems a certain bet to be on this year’s world championship team for Qingdao.

Close behind Forbes, with four gold medals apiece, came under-19 Harrison Braithwaite and under-17 Camilla Griffin. Braithwaite won every U19 race he could, taking gold in the men’s solo, men’s double, mixed double and mixed quad. Griffin picked up wins in the U19 women’s double and mixed quad (with Braithwaite), the U17 women’s solo, and the trials regatta to represent Australia at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games. Neither has so far represented Australia at worlds, but that seems sure to change soon.

And Forbes, Braithwaite and Griffin represented just three of the younger Australian athletes who went home with multiple medals from the event. The men’s trials for Dakar 2026 were won by Alexander Watt, who also won the U17 mixed double with Kaelin Marshall.

The regatta counted as the continental championships for the Oceania region, but, being hosted in Australia, the majority of participants were Australian. However in the days preceding the competition, World Rowing, the Oceania Rowing Confederation and Rowing Australia ran a coastal camp for 48 athletes and coaches from across the Pacific.

The senior and junior podiums from the Australian and Oceania Beach Sprint Championships were:

CW1x:

1. Isabella Scammell – Sydney
2. Catherine Khan – Sydney
3. Elizabeth Newell – University of Queensland

CM1x:

1. Samuel Forbes – University of Queensland
2. Oscar Scheel Gamborg – Mosman
3. Daniel Johnston – Mosman

CW2x:

1. Catherine Khan, Elizabeth Newell – University of Queensland/Sydney
2. Sophia Wightman, Wallis Russell – University of Queensland/Mosman
3. Zara Turner, Samantha Blanchard – Commercial/Australian National University

CM2x:

1. Samuel Forbes, Oscar Scheel Gamborg – Mosman/University of Queensland
2. Daniel Johnston, Jesse Rosin – Canberra/Mosman
3. Liam Davis, Coby Goode – Avon/Fremantle

CMix2x:

1. Oscar Scheel Gamborg, Isabella Scammell – Sydney/Mosman
2. Catherine Khan, Daniel Johnston – Mosman/Sydney
3. Elizabeth Newell, Samuel Forbes – University of Queensland

CMix4+:

1. Sophia Wightman, Catherine Khan , Oscar Scheel Gamborg, Jesse Rosin, Ryder Taylor (c) – Canberra Composite
2. Elizabeth Newell, Sally Kehoe, Monty Martin, Samuel Forbes, Gracie Gascoigne (c) – University of Queensland
3. Zara Turner, Samantha Blanchard, Coby Goode, Daniel Johnston, Isabelle Duarte (c) – Mosman Composite

PR3 CMix2x:

1. Wallis Russell, Samuel Forbes – University of Queensland
2. Mac Russell, Elizabeth Newell – University of Queensland

Dakar 2026 Trials CW1x:

1. Camilla Griffin – Canberra Girls Grammar
2. Lily Canfield – Gippsland Grammar
3. Briar Froud – Fremantle

Dakar 2026 Trials CM1x:

1. Alexander Watt – University of Queensland
2. Zac Wood – Surfers Paradise
3. Coby Keen – Adelaide University

U23 CW1x:

1. Zara Turner – Australian National University
2. Astrid Thomas – University of Queensland
3. Jemma Jansen van Vuuren – Surfers Paradise

U23 CM1x:

1. Samuel Forbes – University of Queensland
2. Harrison Braithwaite – Canberra
3. Liam Davis – Fremantle

U23 CMix2x:

1. Astrid Thomas, Samuel Forbes – University of Queensland
2. Liam Davis, Briar Froud – Fremantle
3. Calli McRae, Coby Goode – Avon/Rockhampton Fitzroy

U19 CW1x:

1. Briar Froud – Fremantle
2. Maddi McLaughlin – Surfers Paradise
3. Lily Canfield – Gippsland Grammar

U19 CM1x:

1. Harrison Braithwaite – Canberra
2. Benjamin Sands – University of Queensland
3. Zac Wood – Surfers Paradise

U19 CW2x:

1. Charlotte Bowen, Camilla Griffin – Canberra Girls/Sydney
2. Olivia Kelly, Briar Froud – Fremantle
3. Alia Marquardt, Lily Canfield – Gippsland Grammar/Team Samoa

U19 CM2x:

1. Harrison Braithwaite, Oliver Kent – University of Queensland/Canberra
2. Edward Milligan, Zac Wood – Surfers Paradise
3. Benjamin Sands, Alexander Watt – University of Queensland

U19 CMix2x:

1. Charlotte Bowen, Harrison Braithwaite – Canberra/Sydney
2. Isabel Pattison, Oliver Kent – University of Queensland
3. Tadhg Bryan, Briar Froud – Fremantle

U19 CMix4+:

1. Charlotte Bowen, Camilla Griffin, Harrison Braithwaite, Oliver Kent, Harriette O’Dwyer (c) – University of Queensland Composite
2. Petar Simkovic, Viti Young, Isabella Henderson, Flynn O’Loughlin, Isabelle Duarte (c) – Commercial Composite
3. Sophia Biddle, Toby Sunderland, Theodora Smith, James Gordon , Gabriella Lazarus (c) – Genesis Christian/Maroochy

U17 CW1x:

1. Camilla Griffin – Canberra Girls Grammar
2. Isabel Pattison – University of Queensland
3. Kaelin Marshall – Swan River

U17 CM1x:

1. Coby Keen – Adelaide University
2. Ethan Hu – Surfers Paradise
3. Alexander Watt – University of Queensland

U17 CMix2x:

1. Kaelin Marshall, Alexander Watt – University of Queensland/Swan River
2. Coby Keen, Zoe Beer – Swan River/Adelaide University
3. Samuel Gower, Elizabeth Drew Finn – Essendon/Hamilton