Newport SLSC is the Open Overall Point Score Champion for a near unbelievable tenth straight time after three days of fierce and fervent competition on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
The eventual triumph – coming, in the end, by more than double the points accumulated by Wanda SLSC in second – brought an end to the 2024 NSW Surf Life Saving Championships, proudly presented by Your local club.
The gold and maroon caps did it in style, signing off with, perhaps fittingly, an emphatic win in the Open Female Taplin through Sarah Locke in the swim leg, Lizzie Welborn on the board, and Jemma Smith in the ski to finish.
It capped a day where Newport athletes featured heavily on the podium, all the way back to a near-clean sweep of the Single Ski divisions to start the carnival’s final day.
Indeed, only Hobie Smit from Cronulla SLSC in the U17 Male category stopped them from winning all six races on offer.
While the Open Championships belonged to Newport, the day belonged to teenage dynamo, Lani Waller and, by extension, Redhead SLSC.
The Hunter club made a huge push up the leader board on Day Three, spurred on in no small part by the 17-year-old who grabbed wins in the U19 Female Board, Swim and Iron.
She then backed it up not half an hour later in the Open Female Iron, with a busted toe, and beat a veritable who’s who of NSW Ironwomen to claim the title.
It was an intense finish – Lani built a significant lead into the final ski leg but slewed on the way in and lost the craft. She swam for her life and reached the shore almost in line with the skis of Newport’s Analise Kibble and Piper Harrison but was running up the beach well before the other two had feet on the sand.
In the end, Redhead would finish third on the Overall Point Score, ahead of fellow Hunter club, Swansea-Belmont SLSC, North Cronulla SLSC and Coogee SLSC – all of whom were a handful of wins away from a podium place themselves.
Swansea-Belmont saw some big wins by its NSW Interstate competitor, Kaitlin Rees who finished first in the U17 Female Iron having earlier beaten two Zara’s – Kasprowicz of North Curl Curl SLSC and Campbell of Cooks Hill SLSC – to the gold in the U17 Female Swim.
Maddix Burke managed the same double as Kaitlin, doing so for Warilla-Barrack Point SLSC in the U15 Male category, and Cudgen Headland SLSC also earned gold medals through Ollie Sharpe in the U19 Male Iron and Archie Allsopp, Archie Loemker, Charlie George, and Phoenix Preston in the U15 Male Cameron Relay.
Earlier in the day, Jackson McCleery of Maroubra SLSC won the Saxon Bird Memorial Trophy by taking out the U19 Male Surf Race, and North Bondi SLSC’s Benedict Christensen won the U19 Male Board, earning him the Jacob Lollback Memorial Trophy.
Further down the beach at the Surf Boat Championships, Bulli SLSC, swept by Paul Jones and featuring Georgia Leach, Brooke Dent, Sarah Hill, and Stephanie Roberts, won the Open Female gold in an incredibly tight finish with North Cronulla and Port Kembla SLSC.
Home club, Queenscliff SLSC won the Reserve Male, Palm Beach SLSC won the U23 and U19 Female, Batemans Bay SLSC won the Reserve Female and South Curl Curl SLSC won the U23 and U19 Male.
In the Open Male, Queenscliff would come up trumps again with sweep, Damien Daley alongside Connor Hopkins, Christopher Cunningham-Reid, James Molloy, and Zac Von Appen. In the 100th year of the club, the emotions were high as they crossed the line before being awarded gold in the final event of the Championships.
OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP POINT SCORE TOP 15
Newport SLSC – 465
Wanda SLSC – 220
Redhead SLSC – 163
Swansea Belmont SLSC – 159
North Cronulla SLSC – 146
Coogee SLSC – 139
Cudgen Headland SLSC – 117
Manly LSC – 107
Warilla-Barrack Point SLSC – 96
South Maroubra SLSC – 96
North Curl Curl SLSC – 88
Cronulla SLSC – 88
North Bondi SLSC – 77
Elouera SLSC – 73
Terrigal SLSC – 68
Sunday 17 March 2024