Sand will fly and water will churn at Midway Beach tomorrow as more than 1000 athletes from around the country contest day 1 of the TSB New Zealand surf lifesaving championships. Individual and team titles in under-16, u19 and open age groups will be at stake and the carnival will
Hometown hopes high
Subscribe to listen
Midway’s Cory Taylor will be defending the open men’s ironman title at the national surf lifesaving championships on his home beach. Picture by Jamie Troughton
All his young charges had been training well.
“They’ve been training together and with kids from Midway and Wainui. The three clubs have pooled resources and I think the young athletes have benefited from that.”
Beach specialist and reigning open women’s beach flags champion Casie Fyall is one of Waikanae strike weapons, along with ski exponent Quaid Thompson.
“Quaid’s in top form after his great showing at the kayak nationals (where he won the open men’s K1 1000 metres), so he will definitely be a contender in the open ski,” Hutchings said.
“In the under-16s, we’ve got Briana Irving, who won five gold medals at the nationals in Christchurch last year in the beach events.
“She will be trying to back that up and put her hand up for New Zealand team selection.”
Waikanae also has some strong canoe crews.
“We’ve got close to 50 athletes competing across all the divisions, which is a great turnout,” Hutchings said.
Midway is keen to build on its seventh placing last year.
“We’ve got a good bunch of kids, about 25 athletes all up,” said club coach Matt Sutton.
There’s a really good crop of under-16 boys, led by Will Pittar on the ski, who has been training hard.
“He will be one to watch, along with Ruben Bronlund. They have had really good seasons to date.”
Sutton said their under-19 girls, headed by Annabel Higgins on the ski and kayaker Alex Bermingham, will be strong.
“The dynamic Olivia Corrin can be expected to feature in the under-19, board, swim and ironwoman.”
Cory Taylor will be back from Queensland to defend his New Zealand ironman title.
“Cory’s been footing it with the best in the business in Australia for a couple of seasons now and he’s got a real good chance of going back-to-back in the ironman.”
Midway’s men’s canoe team could also feature.
Wainui coach Dion Williams said a highlight for the club would be the return of multiple world championship-winning New Zealand team member Laura Quilter and Australia-based board specialist Jasmine Smith.
“They will do the board rescue together, along with their individual events, and they will be a strong team in that rescue event.
“There’s a metre of surf expected through the whole championships.
“We would like it bigger but we’re happy at a metre,” Williams said.
Abby Logan will compete in the open women’s board, having finished second behind Corrin in the u19 board last year.
“We have a good under-16 crew — Stella Smith, Saffi Vette and Ava Smith — in the u16 and u19 board relays.
“They won the open and under-16 titles at the Eastern Regional Champs, so they will be serious contenders.”
Previously well-performed Wainui juniors Jack Virtue and Joe Puddick have moved up into the open ranks.
“They are champing at the bit. They cannot wait to get among it,” said Williams.
The pair will compete in the surf and ironman races.
“We got the whole crew together for the first time this summer on Tuesday night and it feels fantastic to have everyone back,” said Williams.
“It has been a lean season competitively for the club to this point but with everyone on board, hopefully we can make a real strong showing.”
The three-day club titles start at 8am tomorrow with the first of the heats in the boat arena and the ski heats.