VICTORIA, B.C. — Cooper Disque of the Olympic Peninsula Rowing Association took first place at the Western Canadian Beach Sprint Championship in Victoria, B.C., this weekend.

Disque competed in the men’s junior 1x division. His teammate Mason Mai made it to the B Final, finishing just off the medal stand in fourth place. The team of Chris Swain and Sean Halberg competed in the Men’s Masters 2x, taking second. Complete results are available at https://tinyurl.com/BeachSprintResults.

Beach Sprint is a new format of rowing in which rowers face off in a duel that starts with a run through the sand and surf to their rowing sculls.

At the horn, the rowers sprint to their boat, row around a 3-buoy slalom course for 250-meters, then complete a 180-degree turn and row straight back to the beach. Then they jump out of their boat and sprint up the beach to the finish line.

Winners in the duel progress in a tournament bracket.

Beach sprint will be an Olympic sport in 2028 in Los Angeles.

The Olympic Peninsula Rowing Association will host its own beach sprint regatta on Aug. 3-4 at Hollywood Beach in Port Angeles.

Photos from last year’s event can be found at www.parowing.org/beach-sprint.