The Senior State Championships were held last weekend, and although we didn't manage to bring home the big flag this year, there was no shortage of outstanding performances.
Of course, things actually kicked off some weeks ago, with the Champion Patrol, First Aid, Champion Lifesaver and R & R events already having been held.
The main weekend got underway early on Saturay morning with the 2km Beach Run. This is a new event at States this year, having been brought in at National level in 2005. Unsurprisingly, Australian Champion Alison O'Toole was the runaway winner in the Open Women's event. Somerford Marathon specialist Ken Tomczak found the course a bit too short for his linking and finished second in the Open Men's. We also claimed gold in both the Under 17 divisions, Duncan Jacob winning the men's and Tehya Robertson the women's.
The board rescue events were first up in the water, and we claimed a clean sweep of the medals in the first final held, the Under 19 Men's. Ben Carrick and James Cohen were first across the line, followed by Ben Walker and Jake Cropper in second, then Simon Huitenga and Luke Tidey third.
Jono Stock and Chris Timms went close in the Open Men's but were just beaten into second place, with the Carrick/Cohen team in third. The Under 17's was also a close finish, Harry Whitehand and Duncan Jacob just taking the gold ahead of Jeremy's Stock and Doney. Tom Dowling and Lachie Wynne teamed up for a bronze in the Under 15's.
In the Women's arena, Alicia Marriott and Emma Wynne combined to take out the Open event. Fiona Doney and Jess Walker won bronze in the Under 19's, and Jess then combined with Katuschka Taylor-Miller for another third placing in the Under 17 event.
The Tube Race and Tube Rescue events were the next to be held. The Tube Rescue is another new event to States this year, but our Open Women's team of Jae Moffatt, Alex Stock, Fiona Doney and Matilda Sydenham won an Australian medal last year so they knew exactly what they were doing in taking out the gold medal ahead of another City team made up of Rebecca Cohen, Jess Walker, Alicia Marriott and Kim Lovett.
The Open Men's team of Chris Timms, Stephen Toth, Craig Simmonds and James Cohen won the silver medal in their event, with the much hyped Jono Stock, Simon Huitenga, Ben Walker, Eoghan McKenna team in third. Duncan Jacob, Jeremy Stock, Harry Whitehand and Jeremy Doney also picked up a silver in the Under 17's.
Jono proved that he can do it without the weight to tow by winning the Open Men's Tube Race. Alex Stock was third in the Open Women's event. In the Under 19 Men's, Simon Huitenga was first to the buoy with Ben Walker third. Emma Wynne, Matilda Sydenham, Fiona Doney and Alex Stock filled the first four places in the Under 19 Women's.
Duncan Jacob and Jeremy Stock were first and third respectively in the Under 17 Men's, and Jess Walker and Katuschka Taylor-Miller finished second and third in the Under 17 Women's.
After Eddie Gibbs made an emergency dash back to City for a reel, Ben Walker won silver in the Under 19 Belt Race.
By this time the surf boats were underway at the southern end of the beach, and City had two teams in the final of the Boat Relay. In a very tight finish the first City team came home strong in the third leg to win the bronze medal.
The beach arena was also underway, with the early rounds of relays, sprints and flags in preparation for Sunday finals.
The Under 19 Ironman and Ironwoman events were next. In the Women's event, Emma Wynne was a long way ahead of the field in winning gold. The Men's was a closer event, with Simon Huitenga leading as they approached the break on the final ski leg. But he ended up sharing a wave with Bunbury's James Duncan and couldn't quite match him in the sprint to the line, finishing second. Luke Tidey won the bronze medal.
The board relays provided some of the most exciting racing and results of the day. The Open Men were first away, with the City A team led out by Scott Trew. While Cottesloe and Trigg opened out a handy break, the rest of the field came in pretty tightly bunched as Scott handed over to second paddler Ben Carrick. Ben got his board moving faster than his car through Perry Lakes in the afternoon and left the main pack behind, but there was still a sizeable gap to the leaders. As Jono Stock entered the water the feeling was that a solid paddle should safely secure a bronze medal. But Jono had other ideas, and despite coming back into the break a wave behind the leading Cottesloe team never gave the chase away, paddling down the wave in front and leading the sprint to the finish line for a sensational gold medal performance.
The Under 17's were next, and taking inspiration from the Open team's performance the team of Harry Whitehand, Jeremy Doney and James Cohen also spent the race moving through the field for gold. They were followed by the Under 19's team of Luke Tidey, Ben Walker and Ben Carrick who all paddled strongly to complete the trifecta.
In the Women's area, Alicia Marriott, Alison O'Toole and Emma Wynne teamed up to win the gold in the Open Women's event for City for the fifth year in succession. Emma then backed up for a bronze in the Under 19's, along with Jess Walker and Alex Stock.
At the northern end of the beach, the Under 15 Men's team of Lachie Wynne, Jesse George and Tom Dowling finished second in their Board Relay event.
The day was finished off with the Surf Teams events, and the Under 15 boys team of Tom Dowling, Jesse George, Lachie Wynne and Josh Walker swam strongly to take the gold medal. The Under 15 girls, Jess Cohen, Georgia Cropper, Estelle Doney and Kate Dromey finished third.
The Open Women's team of Emma Wynne, Alicia Marriott, Jess Walker and Fiona Doney won the gold medal, then the entire team other than Alicia joined Matilda Sydenham in the Under 19's for another gold. The Under 19 Silver medal was won by the team of Alex Stock, Kim Lovett, Katuschka Taylor-Miller and Rosie Langdale in an event where City caps filled the first seven places across the line.
The Open Men's Surf Team event is always hotly contested and this year was no exception. Chris Timms was first across the line, and teammates Jono Stock, Simon Huitenga and Ben Walker were all in the first ten, giving City the gold.
Simon and Ben then backed up with Ben Carrick and Jake Cropper to also win gold in the Under 19 event. A clean sweep of all the Men's Surf Team events was completed in the Under 17's by James Cohen, Jeremy Doney, Jeremy Stock and Duncan Jacob, bringing to a close Day 1 of the carnival.
Sunday morning kicked off with the Taplin Relays. The Open Men's team got off to a great start with swimmers Chris Timms and Simon Huitenga leading the field out. Board paddlers Jono Stock and Scott Trew were next, and by the time we got to ski paddlers Kristian Hawkless and Ken Tomczak we were being reeled in by the other teams and ultimately had to settle for third place.
The Under 19 Men's team of Simon Huitenga, Ben Walker and Luke Tidey also finished in third place, as did Under 19 Women's team Matilda Sydenham, Alex Stock and Rosie Langdale.
The Cameron Relays fared a little better, with Jess Walker and Katuschka Taylor-Miller joining runners Courtney Forrest and Rachel Kelly for gold in the Under 17 Women's. In the Under 17 Men's event, Duncan Jacob took off across the bank and had a tweny metre lead on the field before he even started swimming. That lead never looked like being challenged through the following legs as Jeremy Stock, Jeremy Doney and Robert Slattery took the team through in first place.
The Under 15 Men's was as close a race as you'll see, but the team of Tom Dowling, Jesse George, Lachie Wynne and Josh Walker had to be content with second place in the end.
The Beach Sprint finals were underway by this time. Hayden Trew was the standout performer for City, picking up the silver medal in both the Under 19 and Open Men's finals. Rachel Kelly also won a silver medal in the Under 17 Women's race.
The Beach Relays were the next events on the beach. Our Under 19 Men are the current Australian Champions, but injury and illness have made this a difficult year for them. Even so, they were on the pace before a dropped baton on the final change put the team of Jake Loffman, Iain Buchan, Dean Scarff and Hayden Trew back into third place.
We don't have a huge Under 19 girls contingent on the beach, but we do have a very strong Under 17 team, so Meaghan Slattery, Amanda Buchan, Hannah McKenzie and Lauren Keightley stepped up to win the gold in the Under 19 event. The team of Amanda Buchan, Rachel Kelly, Hannah McKenzie and Lauren Keightly then ran through again to win the Under 17 gold, while Meaghan Slattery, Aidie Hinks, Bec Clayton, Courtney Forrest and Tehya Robertson combined for the silver.
Amanda England, Jess Richards, Courtney Forrest and Rachel Kelly combined in the Open Women's, picking up the bronze medal.
The Open Men's team of Jake Loffman, Craig Simmonds, Dean Scarff and Hayden Trew also won bronze with a fast-finishing Hayden needing only a couple of metres more track to have taken silver.
The March Past and official carnival opening gave most competitors a break for a while as the formalities were completed. Despite training harder than ever this summer, our March Past team finished with yet another silver medal. The Under 21 team also finished in second place.
Back in the water, the ski finals were underway. While the skis are probably our weakest area at this time, there were still some medal winning performances. Alicia Marriott won the Under 21 Women's event, while Emma Wynne and Rosie Langdale finished first and third respectively in the Under 19's. Simon Huitenga also won bronze in the Under 19 Men's race.
The Board Race finals were also on. The Open Men's race was as tight as they come, with the first five competitors all on the same wave. In the run up the beach, Jono Stock was second by just millimetres to Cottesloe's Andrew Mosel. Alicia Marriott had a slightly less pressured run home as she won the Open Women's event.
All our other Board Race medals were bronzes, by Emma Wynne in the Under 19 Women's, Harry Whitehand in the Under 17 Men's, and Lachie Wynne in the Under 15 Men's.
Back up on the sand, it was Beach Flags time. Dean Scarff and Hayden Trew both made it to the last three in the Under 19 Men's event, but couldn't beat Trigg's Paul Khaw. Dean finished second and Hayden third.
With five out of the eight finalists in the Under 17 Women's being from City, the odds of at least one medal were pretty good. In the end, the last four were all City competitors. Meaghan Slattery was knocked out, then Hannah McKenzie took the bronze medal. In the gold medal run-off, Aidi Hinkes got the jump on Rachel Kelly and had first grab at the flag, but it jolted loose from Aidi's hands and landed for Rachel to pick up and claim gold.
The Surf Races were now underway in the water. The Under 19 girls again filled the first four places with Emma Wynne in the gold medal position, followed by Fiona Doney, Alex Stock and Matilda Sydenham. In the Under 17's Jess Walker finished in second place with Katuschka Taylor-Miller third.
The Under 15 Women's finish had more twists then a corkscrew as the leaders took turns falling in potholes in the final run out of the water. In the end it was Estelle Doney who kept her feet to run through in first place. Tom Dowling finished thrid in the Under 15 Men's event.
Jeremy Stock produced a sensational finish to take out the Under 17 Men's championship from James Cohen, and Simon Huitenga won the bronze medal in the Under 19 Men's.
In the Open ranks, Chris Timms finally broke through for his first title. In the women's arena, Emma Wynne and Alicia Marriott filled the first two places.
As the carnival drew to a close the surf boat finals were in full swing, and although we didn't win any medals this year, we were in the finals of the Open Men's, Reserve Grade and Under 21's, with Steve Bowlers Reserve crew missing the bronze by the narrowest of margins.
The Ironman and Ironwoman were the last individual events to be run. In the Under 17 Men's, Jeremy Stock finished off a successful weekend with a bronze medal, while Jess Walker won silver in the Under 17 Women's event.
The Under 15's also won silver medals, Lachie Wynne in the Ironman and Estelle Doney in the Ironwoman.
The Open Ironwoman was a two horse race between Emma Wynne and Alicia Marriott, with Emma leading out of the open swim leg. Alicia bridged the gap in the board, and took a small lead into the ski which she built on to take out the event, with Emma in second place.
Jono Stock led out the Open Ironman through the swim and board legs, and was still in front at the cans in the ski. But some teamwork and experience from the chasing Cottesloe competitors allowed them to steal the lead and Jono was left in third place.
The final event of the carnival was the Lifesaver Relay. Despite the best efforts of our team, consisting of Grant Trew's boat crew, swimmer James Cohen, board paddler Ben Carrick, Kristian Hawkless on the ski and runner Amanda England, we never got out of the middle of the field and finished in fourth place.
The medal tally:
| Gold: | 45 | |
| Silver: | 39 | |
| Bronze: | 36 |
I've tried to give a mention to all the medallists - apologies if I've missed you out!
[States Gold Medallists]
[States Photos] - Email me with any good photos you have
