With the focus on the numerous team events to be contested there was plenty of club spirit displayed during a highly entertaining second day of the 2017 NSW Surf Life Saving Age Championships at Blacksmiths Beach.

Manly Life Saving Club surged to an overall leadoff 55 points from nearest rivals Elouera with Wanda, Cooks Hill, and North Bondi rounding out the top five.



Hosts Swansea Belmont enjoyed another successful day finishing in 9th position in the overall standings.



The first medal event was the Beach Sprint Relays with many of the athletes using the chance to tune up for tomorrow’s Sprint events while also having fun and competing within the team environment.



Competing in their first State Championships, Manly, took out the U9 Female Relay event with Port Macquarie taking out the male race.



Manly (Female) and North Cronulla (Male) were crowned the U10 Champions respectively. Manly made it a hat-trick of gold medals in the female events when they won the U11s. North Bondi finished first past the post in U11 Male Event.



Coogee took out the U12 Female Relay, while Manly downed a fast-finishing South Maroubra team in the Male Race.



In the U13s Elouera ran away with the competition finishing ahead of Avalon Beach in the women’s race and Wamberal in the men’s.



Success in the U14 Beach Relay was the culmination of some great team work from the fabulous four from Elouera of April Druery, Holly Porter, Bridgitte Salib and Rachel Tougher.



The girls have competed together and in the same run order since Under 8s and capped off their junior careers with another gold medal in the event.



Manly were too strong in their U14 Male Relay with the team of Oskar Enasio, Aiden Enasio, Cooper Robinson, and Miles Weir ending their time in juniors on a high.



In the water there was a number of Swim Team races contested in challenging conditions with the loudest cheer being reserved for the hometown club who held off all comers in the U14 Male Swim Event. Swansea Belmont competitors Ashby Allen, Saxon Coates, Ben Rees, and Nicholas Stoddart were members of team.



Only a few individual events were contested on Day Two as the program for the U9s and 10s wrapped up.



Zara Kasprowicz from North Curl Curl claimed gold in the U9 Board Race with Storm Balmain from Warilla-Barrack Point winning the U9s Male event.



Cheered on by a sizeable crowd the U10 Board Races provided two sensational finishes. Niamh Sharpe from Lennox Head surged on a wave to hold her fast-finishing rivals, while Hamish Taylor battled hard to claim victory in the U10s.



The MacMasters competitor was absolutely thrilled with his maiden state title to go along with the silver he won in 2016.


“I’m really happy it feels so good to be a State Champion, and to it in my favourite event as well is awesome,” said Hamish Taylor.

“The race was really hard as I wasn’t happy with start and I knew when I got to the cans that I was going to have to just go as hard as I can.



“The surf was actually quite small during our race so it meant I had to do heaps of paddling to the finish,” he said.



 



Saturday 4 March 2017