On the first day of three days of Open competition at the 2018 NSW Surf Life Saving Championships, it was the hometown advantage that saw host club Swansea Belmont make the most of the challenging surf conditions to grab some great results.


Swansea Belmont’s Saxon Coates and Nicholas Stoddart won gold in the U15 Board Rescue, beating the Morris twins from Newport across the line. They then backed up with Ashby Allen to win the Board Relay race, and with the help of Kalen Gocher, also took out the U15 Cameron Relay.



Allen, Coates, and Stoddart along with Daniel Chisholm also picked up a silver in the U15 Surf Teams.



Other local Hunter competitors who relished the conditions were Cooks Hills’ Bella Williams and Freya Konetschnik who took gold in the U15 Board Rescue and were part of the silver medal winning team in the Cameron Relay and the Board Relay. In the U17s, Redhead recorded some solid results including second in the Board Relay.



With only a handful of events running through to finals on day one and no beach track events, the Surf Belt races delivered some of the only points on offer.



Newport’s Emily Doyle claimed gold in the U17 Surf Belt, the open mens team won their race while the U19s and U17s picked up silvers. The U15 Surf Team from Newport also won their event.



Newport SLSC sits on top of the pointscore at the end of day one, with key athletes including Georgia Miller, Mitch Trim, Hannah Minogue and Emily Doyle safely through to Sunday’s finals.



In the final event of the day, the 2km Beach Run, a large contingent of runners took to the sand, with Ali Najem from Wanda making a comeback and winning the Open Male division while Angela Leadbeatter from Swansea Belmont came home strongly to take out the Open Womens after winning this event in the Masters Championships on Wednesday.



The 2018 NSW Surf Life Saving Championships, proudly supported by Your local club, continues tomorrow and Sunday.



Top 10 Overall Pointscore – Day 1




  1. Newport SLSC    134

  2. Manly LSC           77

  3. Wanda SLSC       72

  4. Umina SLSC         62

  5. North Bondi SLSC       59

  6. Cronulla SLSC            47

  7. Freshwater SLSC       45

  8. Swansea Belmont SLSC      43

  9. Terrigal SLSC           31

  10. Cooks Hill SLSC       28



 



Friday 9 March 2018


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