Give Inn Back sends rower Ryan to World Beach Sprint Finals

A north east athlete will be able to take up the opportunity to represent Great Britain at the 2023 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals this autumn, thanks to the support of The Inn Collection Group and its five coastal inns in the region.

Ryan Glymond from Cramlington will cox for his country in Barletta, Italy at the end of September thanks to the northern pubco stepping up and covering the costs of his participation.

Making use of funds available via the company’s Give Inn Back fund, The Bamburgh Castle Inn, The Amble Inn, The Commissionaires Quay Inn, The Tynemouth Castle Inn and The Seaburn Inn have all combined to get Ryan to the event.

Hotly tipped to become a future Olympic discipline, Beach Sprint is a relatively new rowing event, with head-to-head racing taking place in solos, mixed doubles and mixed coxed, quadruple sculls.

Raced in coastal boats, it begins with a run from the beach to the boat, athletes then sprint row to a buoy and back. The race ends with one rower from each team sprinting to a finish line on the beach.

Ryan’s talent in the Beach Sprints discipline of rowing was discovered back in 2021 when he was one of several members of the University of St Andrews Boat Club who travelled to the British Rowing Coastal Championships and excelled on their first attempts.

Since then, Ryan has been a member of the GB Beach Sprints Development Squad and has become an invaluable character in the Beach Sprints racing scene across the country.

Cox in the mixed coastal quadruple scull at the 2022 championships in village of Saundersfoot, Ryan and his crew narrowly missed out on the medal positions after three days of intense competition but took pride in being amongst the top crews in the world.

The target for this year is undoubtedly to find those crucial increments that will propel them forwards and onto the podium.

Glymond said: “I’d like to thank The Inn Collection Group and the five coastal inns that have gotten behind me so I can take up the opportunity to compete at this year’s championships.

“Athletes are required to self-fund through sponsorship to get to the event and it has been great to find such a supportive group who very quickly said they would cover the total amount I needed to raise.

Explaining more about Beach Sprint, Glymond added: ““There’s such an atmosphere about the beach sprint regattas that you don’t get at flat water events because it’s such a great spectator sport.

“The fans can see everything: the start and finish are in the same place; there’s high rating and high intensity sprints, all ending with a dive into the beach for a buzzer – what more could you want?!

“The most noticeable difference in beach sprints is that the cox runs and that there is so much more to steering in the beach sprint format. The course has it all: a slalom, a 180-degree turn, and a straight-line sprint back to shore, trying to catch surfing waves.

“You’ve got to be constantly alert to lots of variables and this means the cox can make a huge difference to the result.

Lewis Hegarty, general manager at The Seaburn Inn said: “I know I speak for all of us when I say that we’re delighted to be supporting Ryan and making sure he is able to make the trip out to the finals to compete.

“We are all coastal sites and there is a great heritage in the north east of racing boats out of the shores, so there is a perfect fit between the beach sprint discipline and our inns. Its brilliant that through Give Inn Back, we’ve been able to form this relationship.

“Beach Sprint really looks like a thrilling type of racing and all of us at the sites and The Inn Collection Group will be willing all of the British crews on to glory next weekend!”