There was plenty of excitement for our local surf clubs at the 2021 Surf Life Saving Australian Championships. Over the nine days of competition, our clubs collected 69 medals across the youth, masters and open championships.
In the Youth Championships, the Central Coast took on the best of best.
In the first final of the Championships Skye Hackshall, MacMasters Beach showed excellent surf skills to take out the U/14 female Surf race. Not long after that Lizzy Shearer, Shelly Beach claimed the second medal with an impressive finish coming third in the U/14 Board race.
On the sand, it was the boys from Wamberal who rivalled the big Sydney and Queensland clubs in the beach run events. Keenan White came home strong with a second place in the U/15 2km beach run. He then partnered up with teammate Noah Nakagawa in the 2x 1km beach to place third overall.
Notable mentions go to the following who all placed in the top 6 in their respective events.
Shelly Beach
- Team A U15 Female Board Rescue 6th place
Umina
- Hannah Stevenson U14 Female 2Km Beach Run 5th place
At the Open Championships, it was Avoca Beach and Terrigal who represented the Central Coast in finals with some impressive results.
On the sand, Terrigal’s Emmelyn Weeler put on a great performance with first place in the U/17 sprint and third in flags. While teammate Erin Hamilton came, fourth in the U/17 flags and Ocean Beach’s Nicole Majsak came sixth in the U/19 flags.
In the water, Avoca showed their dominance in the single skis picking up three of the nine golds on offer. The Avoca Open ski relay team continued to stamp their authority against the best of the best in this event claiming gold with a convincing win. In the U/19s, following in his brothers’ footsteps from two years ago was Fletcher Armstrong who claimed gold in the U/19 ski race and in the U/17s Natalia Drobot and Ziko Vesly both put on great performances competing in their first national surf ski races. Natalia picked up the gold in her event and Ziko placed third. And on the boards, Terrigal’s U/17 board relay team put on a great performance in a tight race coming in a close second.
Notable mentions go to the following who all placed in the top 6 in their respective events.
Avoca
- Ella Beere Open Female Single Ski 4th place
- Ellie Richardson U19 Female Surf Race 6th place
- Team B Open Mixed Double Ski 4th place
Terrigal
- Nicholas Green U17 Male Single Ski 6th place
- Ryan Green U17 Male Board Race 4th place
- Team A U17 Male Board Relay 2nd place
- Team A U17 Male Board Rescue 4th place
- Team A U17 Female Beach Relay 5th place
- Team A U17 Male Taplin 5th place
At the Masters Championships, it was fantastic to see 10 of the 15 clubs being represented by their members. This year there was some fantastic results from a number of the competitors with some intense racing.
Avoca’s team put on some great racing with some good results across the board picking up seven top 6 places across the championships.
In the North Avoca Camp it was Colleen Harrison in the 55-59s and Kennith Broomfield and Tony Curran in the 65-69s who lead the team all with multiple top 6 finishes.
Ocean Beach performed well on the sand. Leading their campaign was Lee- Anne Nelson crossing the line in first place in the 45-49s sprint and Darren Peters crossing in third position in the 55-59s sprint.
North Entrance continued to be dominate in the ski event with five top 6 finishes in the single ski and a gold in the 40-44s single ski for Justin Dean
Shelly Beach has a fantastic campaign to bring home eight medals. Leading their medal tally was Dave Smith in the 65-69 division on the sand who claimed first in the sprint and third in the flags. Also on the sand in the 45-49s 2km beach run Adam Walters put in a fast back end to claim gold and in the water Dan Kingsley took out the 40-44s surf race with some skilful bodysurfing.
The Lakes team performed well with Leeanne Longford racing over the line in second in the 50-54s surf race and Lauren Goldie getting three top 6 placings. But it was their teams’ events where The Lakes excelled picking up five top 6 finishes.
Terrigal had another dream campaign with Hayden Smith picking up two golds and a bronze the 35-39s board, ironperson and surf race respectively while stalwart of Central Coast competition Paul Lemmon claimed two golds in the surf race and ironsperson events.
In the Toowoon Bay camp their team had six members place in the top 6 individually with Julie Dawson leading the team with an impressive three golds in the 70-74s age group.
For Umina, it was new recruit who led the point score with gold and silver in the 55-59s flags and sprint respectively. Not far behind her was Steve Di Vivo and Jenni Darwin both placing in the top six in their sand events.
The Lifesaving events can only be contested by qualifying competitors from their State Championships. Both Terrigal and Umina had representative in the Champion Lifesaver, First Aid and Patrol Comp. In the Open First Aid competition the Umina B Team, Bronte Smith and Hannah Murphy took out the gold. In the Champion Lifesaver there was two medal receipants. In the O/40s Umina’s Kerry Armstrong-Smith continued her dominance in the event claim gold and in the U/15s also from Umina, Davara Marshall came second.
In the Boats Championships Avoca, Umina and Wamberal all gained top 6 positions in their age groups. It was Avoca’s Zuluz in the 201yrs Boat who rowed their way into first place.