Challenging water conditions and hot sand underfoot greeted the 2500 junior competitors at Day Two of the 2019 NSW Surf Life Saving Championships, proudly supported by Your local club.
For the current title holder, Elouera SLSC, the conditions must have agreed with them as the club ended the day on top of the ladder, but only just.
Coogee SLSC was the surprise of the day, as they clocked up point after point to finish a very close second. Host club Swansea Belmont couldn’t hang on against the big Sydney clubs and slipped to third place.
But with another full day of finals on Sunday and the pointscore at the top so close, it’s unclear who will take out the 2019 Age Championships title.
Elouera had solid results across all water and beach areas including firsts in the U10 and U14 Female Surf Teams, U10 Female Board Relay and Sybella Daly claimed gold in the U10 Board Race.
Coogee’s wins included the U9 Male Beach Relay, U13 Male Beach Relay and in the girls, the U9, U13 and U14 Female Beach Relays.
The club also made good ground in the core lifesaving events, including gold in the U12/U13 2 person Rescue & Resuscitation (R&R), silvers in the U10/U11 2 person R&R and in the U12-14 5 person R&R.
Newport had a great day in the water and as expected, the Morris brothers owned the U14 events.
Jake and Mitch won the U14 Board Rescue, the Board Relay with Bailey Clues, and were half of the victorious Surf Team. The club also claimed the U13 Male Surf Team and the U13 Board Rescue.
Jake Morris said it was all about getting the points as a club and using a few tactics along the way.
“Our race strategy was to use the sandbank for as long as we could and sprint to the can. We wanted to get a really good start and get the first choice of waves on the way back in,” he said after the Board Rescue.
“Our biggest competition is our club mates out there,” he grinned after narrowly beating team mates Bailey Clues and Lee Melbourn who picked up Silver. “It’s great to have them in our race. We did want to win because we’ve won the board rescue every year since Under 11s. We’re pretty happy with this result.”
A super stoked Avoca U14 Board Relay team of Sinaed Williams, Mia Cracknell and Natalia Drobot took on some tricky conditions to come across the line first.
“Today was a good day and we were all so excited to win. Our pre-race plan was to just breathe. Just do your best. Just make some memories.
“We had such a great start, paddled our hardest and came in and started crying I was so happy to do our best and win,” said one of the girls.
Mia Cracknell said watching the wipeouts in the previous board races were adding some pressure but she focussed on the solid coaching and advice of older sister Lily.
“I was so scared but you can’t back off in a final. You’ve got to do the best you can and use every single minute.”
The junior events at the 2019 NSW Surf Life Saving Championships conclude Sunday with all the finals, including Ironperson and Relays, along with the spectacle of the March Past parade.
Day Two Overall Pointscore
- Elouera SLSC 96
- Coogee SLSC 95
- Swansea Belmont SLSC 91
- Cooks Hill SLSC 87
- Wanda SLSC 78
- North Bondi SLSC 72
- North Curl Curl SLSC 69
- South Maroubra SLSC 68
- Cronulla SLSC 65
- Avoca Beach SLSC 56
Saturday 2 March 2019