Searson targets 2028 Olympic beach sprint place
Natacha Searson is one of two rowers from Jersey representing Great Britain at the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals, alongside Chris Thompson
- Published
Coastal rower Natacha Searson is targeting a place at the 2028 Olympic Games.
The 22-year-old from Jersey has been called up to the Great Britain coastal rowing team for the World Beach Sprint Finals in Turkey next week.
Beach sprint rowing will make its Olympic debut in Los Angeles in three years time.
The sport sees rowers sprinting from the beach to their boat before rowing out to a buoy, returning to the beach and then sprinting over the finish line.
Searson, who is teaming up with Cameron Buchan in the mixed doubles, hopes she can keep her place and become the first person from Jersey to compete at an Olympic Games since 2000.
"There's a mixed doubles and a single for both genders in LA, so that would be great if I could keep getting into the team each year," Searson told BBC Radio Jersey.
"That would be amazing.
"I think it's a very fun and dynamic sport to watch for rowers and for non-rowers, so hopefully it'll be a hit in LA."
Searson, who grew up rowing around the coast of her Channel Island home, currently rows for Newcastle University as well as Great Britain.
She goes into the world finals having reached the quarter-finals of the European Championships earlier this year, where she and Buchan lost in the last eight to Lithuania's reigning world champions Dominykas Jancionis and Martyna Kazlauskaite.
"There is a lot of hard work that goes into it, but I think it is so important to just enjoy the process and enjoy the hard sessions, and lean on the people around you and have fun with it still," Searson said.
"Yes it's hard, but it's kind of fun when you're doing hard things around other people.
"Enjoying the process and enjoying the training really helps keep you going and helps get you through the hard sessions."