Charlotte Wiley Wins World Title in Qingdao
Wiley with the U.S. flag on the beach in Qingdao. Credit: Photo: row2k for USRowing.
GRP Row's Charlotte Wiley is a world champion. This past Tuesday, October 20, in her first World Championships, Wiley rowed in the U.S. coastal mixed coxed quad that won gold at the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals in Qingdao, China, defending the title the U.S. won in 2025.
Storms wiped out the weekend's training and racing at Golden Beach. With more bad weather forecast for Wednesday, organizers moved the last day's racing up, and all ten finals were run on Tuesday. The U.S. crew of Malachi Anderson, Wiley, Audrianna Boersen and Chris Bak, with Coral Kasden coxing, had to take the long way to reach the finals. After finishing seventh in the opening time trial, one place short of a direct spot in the quarterfinals, they won their repechage against Brazil by more than 37 seconds. In the quarterfinal they edged Great Britain, the 2024 champions, by 1.52 seconds, and in the semifinal they beat Australia by more than seven. In the final they recovered from an imperfect turn at the halfway mark, passed host China in the closing stretch and won by just over seven seconds.
"We really all jived together so well," Kasden told World Rowing. "It was a blast to row with all of them." It is the third gold in the boat for Kasden, and the second for Boersen, Anderson and Bak.
Charlotte on the medal stand with the crew. Credit: Photo: row2k for USRowing
Beach sprints are the short, sprint-format version of coastal rowing, which is head-to-head racing in open water over much longer courses: a beach sprint is a three-minute dash from the sand to the boat, a slalom through buoys, a turn and a run up the beach to hit a buzzer. They are also the version headed to the Olympics, making their debut at the Los Angeles 2028 Games; longer-course coastal racing is not on the Olympic program.
GRP legacy rower Sera Busse and Kory Rogers also raced in Qingdao in the coastal mixed double sculls one week earlier, winning silver over a host Chinese crew. Rogers and Busse had the better start, slipped back through the middle of the course and then got into a tight race for second with Long Zhentao and Yang Yujiao. A better turn around the final buoy settled it for the U.S. Finland's Joel Naukkarinen and Eeva Karppinen took gold, and the U.S. finished the regatta at the top of the medal table with three golds and two silvers.
A week later at the Beach Sprint Finals, Rogers and Busse were fifth in the time trial and went straight into the last 16. They beat Finland by more than ten seconds, then lost their quarterfinal to Poland, the eventual bronze medalists, by 3.15 seconds. They finished fifth overall; Germany won the event.
Wiley is back with GRP Row for the Fall Speed Order in Princeton, New Jersey, November 14–15. Full results are at World Rowing for the Beach Sprint Finals and the Coastal Championships.
