The 2006 Australian Championships are over, with another year of fantastic results from the City of Perth team. We won four gold medals and finished sixth overall in the championship pointscore.
With 2006 being the last of a twelve-year run of the Championships at Kurrawa Beach on the Gold Coast, a huge City contingent - most of whom have never seen an Aussies at any other venue - went across.
On arrival it was clear that this was going to be a difficult carnival, as huge seas in the wake of a cyclone in the north of Queensland had removed pretty much all the sand right along the coast. At high tide the waves were still taking off the front of the sand dunes, and it was hard to see how anything other than the beach sprints (on a built-up track being trucked in only slightly faster than it was being washed away) could be held at the venue.
As things turned out, as the week went on the swell continued to fall and only a few events had to be relocated, as well as several changes to timetables and marshalling logistics based around tide times.
Our first competitors got underway on Tuesday with the Champion Lifesaver events. After completing the theory paper and resuscitation sections at Broadbeach, it was clear that the conditions in the water would not allow the practical components to be held - a theory proved by one City coach who jumped in the water at Kurrawa and got out at Northcliffe without actually making it all the way out the back.
Instead it was all aboard for a half-hour drive to Kirra, where conditions proved only slightly easier. A strong northerly drift meant the swim and board events were run from right to left rather than left to right, and in the tube swim just reaching the cans was an exercise in judgment on where to enter the water.
At the end of all this, the City results were outstanding. Kim Lovett won our first Gold of the championships, taking out the Under 19 Women's event to go with her Under 17 win in 2005. Rosie Langdale finished fifth in the same division. In the Open events, Rebecca Cohen won her third Australian medal in Champion Lifesaver with a bronze in the Women's, while Tim Trew was fifth in the Men's event. Jess Walker was sixth in the Under 17 Women's, and Jess Cohen 7th in the Under 15's.
Wednesday's events were also relocated to Kirra. This was mainly the Master's carnival, where Penny Cohen won bronzes in both sprint and flags, but also included the 2 Kilometre Beach Run.
Alison O'Toole was the defending Australian Champion in the Open Women's event. Unlike last year the Men's and Women's events were run separately (perhaps to spare the guys the embarrassment), but Alison easily defended her title in a time just twenty seconds slower than the Men's winner.
Although we won no more medals, we picked up several minor placings in other divisions - Ken Tomczak was fifth in the Open Men's race, Duncan Jacob fourth in the Under 17 Men's, Teyha Robertson fifth in the Under 17 Women, and Estelle Doney sixth in the Under 15 Women's race.
Meanwhile back up the coast at Broadbeach the Champion Patrol team were in action, and keen to improve on last year's desperately close fourth placing. In the absence of captain, coach, mentor and inspiration Grant Trew, the team of Stephen Toth, Tim Trew, Rebecca Cohen, Kim Lovett, Rosie Langdale and Eoghan McKenna performed strongly in all facets of the event to win the bronze medal.
On Thursday morning the carnival got fully underway, in between high tides. Once again there were strong performances right across the arenas, with too many finalists to mention and great results all around.
The clubs swimming strength was showed again, with several surf teams finalists. The girls came through with medals - silver in the Under 19's (Emma Wynne, Alex Stock, Jess Walker and Fiona Doney) and bronze in the Open event (Emma Wynne, Alicia Marriott, Matilda Sydenham and Fiona Doney).
The Under 17 Men's team of James Cohen, Tom Dowling, Jeremy Doney and Duncan Jacob went very close but had to be happy with fourth place, while the Under 15 Men Tom Dowling, Jesse George, Lachie Wynne and Josh Walker were sixth.
The guys got their place on the podium in the Rescue Tube Rescue events, finishing second in both the Open (Chris Timms, James Cohen, Stephen Toth and Eoghan McKenna) and Under 19 (Simon Huitenga, Luke Tidey, Ben Carrick and Ben Walker) races.
We had finalists in every division of the surf races - an achievement not to be underestimated. Emma Wynne won the club's third Gold of the championships in the Under 19 Women's final, and followed that up with a silver in the Open event. We also had three sixth-placegetters: James Cohen in the Under 17 Men's, Jess Walker in the Under 17 Women's and Chris Timms in the Restricted (Over 24) event.
At the northern end of the beach, we also had R&R teams in action. Our Under 15 team of Kate Dromey, Lizzie Langdale, Nikki Avery, Ashleigh Clarke and Jess Cohen qualified in sixth place for the final, where they put in excellent performance to win the bronze medal - just the fourth R&R medal in the club's history, and the third for master coach Ian Scott.
The beach arena also had another big year. Good performances in the early rounds saw a number of relay teams in medal contention, but some unscheduled baton-juggling displays and overenthusiastic changeovers wiped out the girls teams and left our Under 19 Men as the last team standing.
Hayden Trew performed outstandingly earlier in the day in the Beach Sprint final where he finished a tight fourth, but didn't have to run nearly as hard anchoring the Relay team as the team of Jake Loffman, Iain Buchan and Dean Scarff (specially taped together for the occasion) put him so far in front that he could have just about walked the track and crossed the line for another Gold.
Back in the water, two-times Australian Under 19 Board Rescue Champions Emma Wynne and Alicia Marriott were chasing their first Open title, but in a closely fought finish had to be happy with the bronze medal.
Both Emma and Alicia also featured in the Open Ironwoman final as the carnival approached it's climax. Neither got a particularly good start in the opening board leg, but a brilliant swim from Alicia brought her back into contention. A pack of four going onto the ski quickly became a pack of two as Alicia narrowly led Manly's Naomi Flood around the cans. They matched each other stroke for stroke on the way home and came in on the same wave with only the sprint to the line between them and the Australian title. Nine times out of ten in these situations the first one running wins the race, and so it proved this time with Flood getting the jump at the water's edge and holding on to the line with Alicia crossing in second - the first Western Australian since Ken Vidler to medal in an Open Ironman or Woman event.
The final event of the carnival nearly proved to be the highlight, as our Open Women's Taplin team of Alicia Marriott, Emma Wynne and Alison O'Toole led the field into the final ski leg. With the chasers closing but still holding a lead Alison came across the bank only to encounter one of "those" waves which turned her sideways and unceremoniously dumped her from her ski. She recovered to take City across the line in fourth place, and as the old saying goes "That's Surf".
Overall, it was another outstanding year for City of Perth, winning our second-best ever medal count and again ranking in the top six clubs in Australia. We won four gold, five silver and five bronze medals at this year's Championships, and made top six finishes in twenty-nine events.
| Gold | Under 19 Women's Champion Lifesaver - Kim Lovett
Open Women's 2km Beach Run - Alison O'Toole Under 19 Women's Surf Race - Emma Wynne Under 19 Men's Beach Relay - Jake Loffman, Iain Buchan, Dean Scarff, Hayden Trew |
| Silver | Open Women's Surf Race - Emma Wynne
Open Ironwoman - Alicia Marriott Open Men's Rescue Tube Rescue - Chris Timms, James Cohen, Stephen Toth, Eoghan McKenna Under 19 Men's Rescue Tube Rescue - Simon Huitenga, Luke Tidey, Ben Carrick, Ben Walker Under 19 Women's Surf Team - Emma Wynne, Alex Stock, Jess Walker, Fiona Doney |
| Bronze | Open Women's Surf Team - Emma Wynne, Alicia Marriott, Matilda Sydenham, Fiona Doney
Open Women's Champion Lifesaver - Rebecca Cohen Open Patrol Competition - Stephen Toth, Tim Trew, Rebecca Cohen, Kim Lovett, Rosie Langdale, Eoghan McKenna Open Women's Board Rescue - Emma Wynne, Alicia Marriott Under 15 Rescue & Resuscitation - Kate Dromey, Lizzie Langdale, Nikki Avery, Jess Cohen, Ashleigh Clarke |
| Fourth | Open Women's Taplin Relay - Emma Wynne, Alicia Marriott, Alison O'Toole
Under 19 Men's Beach Sprint - Hayden Trew Under 17 Men's Surf Team - James Cohen, Tom Dowling, Jeremy Doney, Duncan Jacob Under 17 Men's 2km Beach Run - Duncan Jacob |
| Fifth | Open Men's 2km Beach Run - Ken Tomczak
Open Men's Champion Lifesaver - Tim Trew Under 19 Women's Champion Lifesaver - Rosie Langdale Under 17 Women's 2km Beach Run - Tehya Robertson |
| Sixth | Restricted Surf Race - Chris Timms
Under 17 Men's Cameron Relay - Duncan Jacob, Jeremy Doney, Jeremy Stock, Robert Slattery Under 17 Men's Surf Race - James Cohen Under 17 Women's Surf Race - Jess Walker Under 17 Women's Champion Lifesaver - Jess Walker U15 Men's Surf Team - Tom Dowling, Jesse George, Lachie Wynne, Josh Walker U15 Women's 2km Beach Run - Estelle Doney |
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[Australian Championships Medallists]
