City has again had great success at the Australian Championships, held at Scarborough Beach last week. We won four gold, seven silver and six bronze medals, and retained our place in the top six clubs in the country.
The week of action began with the Champion Lifesaver events, where City's first medal of the championships was won by Ben Carrick in the Under 19 Men's competition. Ben finished in third place, just 2.5 points behind the gold medallist.
The Champion Patrol team of Grant Trew, Tim Trew, Stephen Toth, Craig Simmonds, Kim Lovett and Rebecca Cohen continued their run of improvement at Australian Championships by winning the silver medal in that event, with some stunning board skills shows along the way by both Tothy (combining with Kim to take out the Board Rescue in a photo finish with Northcliffe) and Tim (pioneering a new rescue method where you paddle the board out to the patient then jump off and watch the board go back to the beach without you).
Early on Thursday morning a piece of club history was created. In the Open Women's 2km Run, Alison O'Toole went to the lead right from the start and just got further in front as the race went on. Alison crossed the line some 53 seconds ahead of her nearest rival to become the first City member to win three consecutive gold medals in an Australian Championship event.
Later in the day the Under 17 Men's Surf Team of Jeremy Stock, Tom Dowling, Jeremy Doney and Harry Jovanovich won the club's second gold of the championships in that event.
We then moved on to the Rescue Tube Rescue races, where the Under 19 Women's team won a silver medal. Lara Taylor was the tube swimmer, bringing in patient Jess Cohen, with Fiona Doney and Tehya Robertson completing the final drag up the beach and across the line.
The final event of the day was the Under 19 Men's Surf Team, with the City team of Ben Carrick, James Cohen, Simon Huitenga and Ben Walker competing. Generally with surf teams races the spectators get to test their mental arithmetic at the finish line in trying to quickly work out how the results are shaping up. That wasn't necessary this time, however, with the City team taking second, third, fourth and sixth places for one of the clearest wins in surf teams history.
Friday was a quieter day on the podium, with no medals coming to the City camp. We did however spend the day contesting a lot of early rounds of events in preparation for finals still to come.
The first medal of the day on Saturday came from the Under 17 Men's area, with Jeremy Stock coming in second in the Rescue Tube Race. The Under 17 R&R team of Kate Dromey, Nikki Avery, Chloe Mills, Lizzie Langdale and Jess Cohen then followed up with a bronze in their event - a remarkable feat given that Chloe joined the team only two weeks earlier after an injury ruled out Ashleigh Crabtree from competing.
Up in the charged atmosphere of the Coliseum the Beach Flags finals were on, with Adie Hinkes winning the bronze medal in the Under 17 Women's event. Back in the water, Chris Timms towed James Cohen in the Open Men's Rescue Tube Rescue, with Stephen Toth and Craig Simmonds on hand to drag across the finish for another bronze. And finally, Jacinta and Alicia Marriott returned to the national stage in the Open Women's Board Rescue, crossing the line third in a very tight finish.
The final day of the championships on Sunday saw City caps in just about every event. The surf race finals were the first races away, and in the Under 19 Men's race Simon Huitenga came through in a flying finish to take the silver medal.
Alicia Marriott put in a great performance in the Open Women's Board Race, coming through second in a long, hard, flat paddle.
The beach finals then produced a flurry of medals to finish the carnival. In one of the highlights of the carnival, Dean Scarff blitzed the field to win the Open Men's Beach Sprint. Dean is the second City competitor to win this event, the first being Brad Trotter back in 1973.
The carnival finished with the Beach Relays, where there were City teams in just about every final. First up, the Under 15 Women's team of Amy Murphy, Phoebe George, Kelsey Golding and Emily Slattery won the silver medal in their race.
The Under 17 Women's team of Adie Hinkes, Rachel Kelly, Meaghan Slattery and Courtney Forrest won a bronze in the Under 17's, then ran again in the Under 19's where they won a silver.
In the final pointscore, City finished in sixth place - our third consecutive year in the nation's top six clubs.
Apart from the medal-winning performances described, City also had many other fantastic performances across the whole range of events. Well done to everyone who was involved.
Video
| Open Ironwoman Semi-Final
Alicia Marriott |
Open Women's Surf Race
Alicia Marriott |
Open Women's Board Race
Alicia Marriott |
| Open Women's Beach Sprint
Amanda England |
Open Men's Beach Sprint
Dean Scarff |
Open Ironwoman Final - part 1
Alicia Marriott |
| Open Ironwoman Final - part 2
|
Results
| Gold | Open Men's Beach Sprint - Dean Scarff
Open Women's 2km Beach Run - Alison O'Toole Under 19 Men's Surf Team - Ben Carrick, Ben Walker, Simon Huitenga, James Cohen Under 17 Men's Surf Team - Jeremy Stock, Tom Dowling, Jeremy Doney, Harry Jovanovich |
| Silver | Open Women's Board Race - Alicia Marriott
Open Patrol Competition - Grant Trew, Stephen Toth, Rebecca Cohen, Kim Lovett, Tim Trew, Craig Simmonds Under 19 Men's Surf Race - Simon Huitenga Under 19 Women's Beach Relay - Adie Hinkes, Rachel Kelly, Meaghan Slattery, Courtney Forrest Under 19 Women's Rescue Tube Rescue - Fiona Doney, Jess Cohen, Tehya Robertson, Lara Taylor Under 17 Men's Rescue Tube Race - Jeremy Stock Under 15 Women's Beach Relay - Amy Murphy, Phoebe George, Kelsey Golding, Emily Slattery |
| Bronze | Open Men's Rescue Tube Rescue - Chris Timms, James Cohen, Craig Simmonds, Stephen Toth
Open Women's Board Rescue - Jacinta Marriott, Alicia Marriott Under 19 Men's Champion Lifesaver - Ben Carrick Under 17 Women's Beach Flags - Adie Hinkes Under 17 Women's Beach Relay - Adie Hinkes, Rachel Kelly, Meaghan Slattery, Courtney Forrest Under 17 Rescue & Resuscitation - Kate Dromey, Lizzie Langdale, Nikki Avery, Jess Cohen, Chloe Mills |
| Fourth | Open Men's Beach Relay - Dean Scarff, Iain Buchan, Shane Buchan, Craig Simmonds
Under 19 Men's 2km Beach Run - Duncan Jacob Under 19 Men's Taplin Relay - Ben Carrick, James Cohen, Simon Huitenga Under 17 Women's 2km Beach Run - Estelle Doney |
| Fifth | Open Men's 2km Beach Run - Ken Tomczak
Open Men's Champion Lifesaver - Tim Trew Open Women's Surf Race - Alicia Marriott Open Mixed Double Ski - Ash Nesbit, Kate Forgione Under 23 March Past - Nikki Avery, Jessie Cohen, Rebecca Cohen, Kate Dromey, Michelle Hansen, Lizzie Langdale, Rosie Langdale, Kim Lovett, Chloe Mills, Janelle Slattery, Alex Stock, Matilda Sydenham Under 19 Women's Champion Lifesaver - Kim Lovett Under 19 Women's Beach Relay - Amanda Buchan, Hannah Mackenzie, Lauren Keightley, Jessica Richards |
| Sixth | Lifesaver Relay -
Open Women's Beach Sprint - Amanda England Under 17 Surf Belt Race - Tom Dowling Under 19 Men's Surf Race - James Cohen Under 17 Men's Surf Race - Tom Dowling Under 19 Men's Rescue Tube Rescue - Simon Huitenga, Harry Jovanovich, Ben Walker, Duncan Jacob |
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
