Poole rower Lexi Gill, 17, races beach sprints for Great Britain at the Dakar Youth Olympics from 31 October, helped by a £1,000 community foundation grant.

Lexi Gill, a 17-year-old rower from Poole, will race for Great Britain at the Youth Olympics in Dakar, Senegal, from 31 October to 3 November. She had been rowing for only a year when she was invited to try beach sprints, and a £1,000 grant from Dorset Community Foundation paid towards her own blades and the travel that got her to the races where she was picked.

Before Dakar she is competing at the 2026 World Beach Sprint Finals in China.

“Competing in Dakar at the Youth Olympics and in China at Worlds is something I’ve dreamed of ever since I started beach sprints, so it’s an amazing feeling to see all the hard work paying off and that dream becoming a reality,” she said.

“I’m incredibly excited to compete on the international stage, challenge myself against some of the best athletes and achieve the best results I can.”

A sport that starts and ends with a run

Beach sprints are raced in singles or pairs. Crews run down the beach to their boats, slalom round a course of buoys, row back in, then jump out and sprint up the sand to the finish line.

Lexi Gill in a navy GBR racing suit sprinting across sand away from a boat
Lexi Gill sprinting across the sand in GBR racing kit. Photo: supplied by Dorset Community Foundation

The foundation says she showed so much promise that she was invited into the Beach Sprints Development Academy and then had trials for the Team GB Development Pathway.

Her first Great Britain call-up came last year. Second place in the women’s singles time trial and fourth overall in the under-19 event at the Welsh Championships earned her a place at the Coupe de la Jeunesse in La Linea, Spain. There she and her teammate were seventh in the women’s doubles time trial and seventh overall after reaching the quarter-finals.

“The racing was very different from what I’m used to because it’s such a higher level, but I really enjoyed getting to see what the standard was like and it has made me set my sights higher,” she said.

What the £1,000 paid for

The grant came from the foundation’s Lord-Lieutenant’s Fund for Young and Talented, which is also backed by the Wimborne engineering company Superior Seals. It gives grants of up to £1,000 towards costs that could stop young people making the most of a natural ability. In Lexi’s case it went on buying her own rowing blades, and on travel and accommodation for competitions.

“The grant provided me with the opportunity to not only train with equipment that enabled me to be my best, but also to be able to attend the competitions that were pivotal to my selection for the GB team,” she said. “I am so grateful as well as being extremely proud to represent my country.”

The blades are part of what keeps her going. “I’m motivated even more by having my own blades, I look at them and the medals I’ve won and that’s the motivation I need to keep training.”

Lexi Gill in sunglasses lying on the sand at a beach sprint event, smiling
Lexi Gill on the sand at a beach sprint event. Photo: supplied by Dorset Community Foundation

Louise Balaam, the foundation’s chief executive, said: “Lexi is exactly the kind of young person this fund is designed to help, and we are thankful to Lord-Lieutenant Michael Dooley and Superior Seals for their support.

“It’s so exciting to be able to play a small part in the sporting journey of someone with a huge talent whose potential is being limited by circumstances. We’re going to enjoy watching Lexi’s progress.”

Next stop: 2032

Dakar is the immediate target, but Lexi wants to be a full Olympian. The foundation’s release says beach sprints are set to become an Olympic event in 2028, and she has her eye on the Games after that.

“That might be a bit soon but 2032 is great timing for me. That will be the prime time for me, so that is definitely my biggest goal.”

She credits the people around her. “I couldn’t have reached this point without the support of my coaches at Poole Rowing Club and British Rowing, my beach sprint teammates, the grants that have helped make these opportunities possible and especially my mum. I’m looking forward to representing my country, gaining valuable experience and seeing what I can achieve.”

What it means for you

If you know a young person in Dorset whose talent is being held back by the cost of kit, travel or training, the Lord-Lieutenant’s Fund for Young and Talented gives grants of up to £1,000. Details of the fund and the foundation’s other grants are on the Dorset Community Foundation website.

Got a sporting achievement or community story from your part of Dorset? Send us your news.