Gisborne's medal tally rolling with gold, silver and bronze

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

A gold medal to Waikanae’s Adam Tate on the ski, a silver to Wainui’s veteran canoe team and two bronze medals to Wainui’s Belinda Slement got the medal tally rolling for Gisborne yesterday at the New Zealand surf lifesaving championships.

The main beach at Mount Maunganui turned on the usual shorebreak and at times half-a-metre clean surf conditions for the 200-plus Masters athletes involved and then later in the day for the club championship races.

Tate from Kaiaponi Farms Waikanae won the ski gold in a tight finish, Wainui’s Salve Zame, Andrew Reid, Matt Logan and Jason Low won their first round race in the 200-239 years canoe, then had two thirds to finish with the silver.

Slement won her bronzes in the 35-39 board and surf races, and her board medal was decided in the run up the beach.

Once the Masters competition finished and the club championships started, the gold medal flow got started for Dawson Building Midway.

The club’s under-19 male tube rescue team of Angus Blair, Tyron Evans, Jack Lepper and Finn Cameron started things off by snaring the club’s first gold at this year’s nationals.

Their u19 girls climbed into the golden action not long after in winning their u19 women’s double ski title, and their clubmates Sophie Petro and Ella Sutton won the bronze.

The open mixed double ski final was a hard-fought affair and Midway’s Cory Taylor and Alex Bermingham came through in seventh after a third place in their heat and second place in their semifinals.

No further results from Day One were available when the Herald went to print last night.

Late in the afternoon Mount Maunganui had leapt out to 37 points on the overall points table, Omanu and Red Beach on 13, East End and Taylors Mistake on 12 and Midway on 11.