Papamoa's Natalie Peat beats Australia's top surf lifesavers

WORLD CLASS: Papamoa's Natalie Peat won gold and silver medals at last weekend's Australian Pool Rescue Championships. PHOTO/FILE A_220214gn46BOP

The New Zealand Black Fins will come together this week for their final team camp ahead of the 2016 Lifesaving World Championships.

Final preparations for next month's event will be the core focus for the team of 12 who will aim to create history by being the first Kiwi surf lifesaving team to win three consecutive world titles.

And a number of them proved they are already in fine form as they took on the Australian Pool Rescue Championships in Queensland over the weekend.

Natalie Peat from the Papamoa club won gold and set a new New Zealand record in the 100m Manikin Tow in 1.01.75.She also won silver in the 50m Swim with Fins.

Laura Quilter (Wainui) smashed her own record by 1.5 seconds to set a new world record in the 50m Manikin Carry with a time of 32.79. In the Men's 50m Manikin Carry, Chris Dawson (Midway) took the gold in a time of 29.58. Samantha Lee also set a new New Zealand record winning the Women's 200m Super Lifesaver in a time of 2.24.52.

Quilter took another gold in the 100m Rescue Medley with Lee taking gold in the 200m Obstacles and Danielle McKenzie (Mairangi Bay) winning the Line Throw to make a total of seven golds, four silver and two bronze.

The final team camp began on the Gold Coast yesterday (Thursday) and will run until Sunday with two days of racing in the pool and two days at the beach.

Last month's team camp saw 11 of the 12 athletes in attendance, with sprinter Olivia Eaton (Mount Maunganui) in Poland for the World Junior Athletics Championships.

Team coach Jason Pocock says it will be great to have the full team together one last time to hone their skills and work on any key areas ahead of the big event.

"Last month's team camp was a great opportunity to see where everyone is at and allowed the management team to work with them on some areas of development. This time, we will be fine tuning with the athletes pushed hard as the reality of the world champs is now on our doorstep," he says.

Rescue 2016, the Lifesaving World Championships, will be held in Eindhoven and Noordwijk in The Netherlands from September 1-18 and the national team's competition includes three days of racing in the pool followed by two days on the beach.

The six female athletes include Commonwealth Games swimmers Samantha Lee (Lyall Bay) and Laura Quilter (Wainui) Nutri-Grain Ironnwoman stars Danielle McKenzie (Mairangi Bay) and Devon Halligan (Omanu), pool rescue specialist Natalie Peat (Papamoa) and beach sprinter Olivia Eaton (Mt Maunganui).

The men's line-up remains unchanged from Rescue 2014 and includes former Olympic swimmers Steven Kent (Titahi Bay) and Andrew McMillan (St Clair) along with Ironmen Max Beattie (Omanu) and Cory Taylor (Midway) who took part in their first Kellogg's Nutri-Grain series this year. They are joined by Paul Cracroft-Wilson (Fitzroy) and Chris Dawson (Midway).

New Zealand will also be sending a Youth team known as the Junior Black Fins. Like the Open team, the Youth team features six male and six female athletes.

Australian Pool Rescue Championship results:

Gold
Laura Quilter- 50m Manikin Carry (World Record)
Laura Quilter- 100m Rescue Medley
Chris Dawson- 50m Manikin Carry
Natalie Peat- 100m Manikin Tow (NZ Record)
Samantha Lee- 200m Super LifeSaver (NZ Record)
Danielle McKenzie- Line Throw
Samantha Lee- 200m Obstacle

Silver
Samantha Lee- 50m Manikin Carry
Laura Quilter- 100m Manikin Carry
Samantha Lee- 100m Rescue Medley
Natalie Peat- 50m Swim with Fins

Bronze
Sam Lee- 100m Manikin Carry
Chris Dawson- 100m Manikin Carry