Challenge time for junior lifesavers

More than 40 of the district’s 11-14 year old surf lifesaving athletes get the chance to race each other today in some surf, probably at Wainui. The ‘Gisborne Coastal Challenge’ produced this sort of action when it was staged last year. It produced some excellent competition for the youngsters. File picture

The Gisborne Coastal Challenge for the district’s young up-and-coming junior surf lifesaving athletes will be staged at Wainui today.

It was at northern Makorori last summer and was a huge success.

The carnival is for youngsters aged 11-14 years, in two age groups, under 12s and under 14s.

“We have got 45 entries from the three Gisborne clubs, which is great,” Riversun Wainui’s head coach Dion Williams said.

“At this stage, we are hoping to run the carnival directly in front of the surf club today, with the Lloyd George Road end our back-up venue, then northern Makorori.”

The competition starts at 10am this morning.

“We’ll have a couple of swim races, board races and beach events,” Dion said.

“It’s a good opportunity for the youngsters to get some racing in the surf and to challenge each other.”