Gisborne Herald
  • Gisborne Herald Home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport

Locations

  • Gisborne
  • Bay of Plenty
  • Hawke's Bay

Media

  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Premium
Home / Gisborne Herald / Sport

Hometown hopes high

Gisborne Herald
18 Mar, 2023 04:21 AMQuick Read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save
    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

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

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

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

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 culminate in the crowning of the Allan Gardner Memorial Trophy winners for overall top club. Powerhouse Mount Maunganui Lifeguard Service blitzed the rest of the clubs last year in Christchurch and will once again be the club to beat. Gisborne Herald reporter Murray Robertson spoke to coaches from the Gisborne city clubs.

Waikanae produced a splendid second overall club in the Eastern Regionals carnival and go into the national champs in great shape after a dominant showing in the Gisborne championships.

“The feeling is good and positive in the club, and hopefully we can do well,” said Waikanae club coach Cory Hutchings.

The club was third overall last year and Hutchings said top three was the goal again.

“That would be a great result on our ‘nearly’ home beach.”

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

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.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

“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.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

“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.

Save
    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Sport

Sport

Reign supreme: Four years in a row for King William

Sport

Gimme five: Boyder on target for Traktion

Sport

Opening night a whitewash of 6-0 scorelines


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Sport

Reign supreme: Four years in a row for King William
Sport

Reign supreme: Four years in a row for King William

Brown wielded a deadly sword in a crushing 12th-hole victory in the championship final.

29 Jul 06:00 AM
Gimme five: Boyder on target for Traktion
Sport

Gimme five: Boyder on target for Traktion

29 Jul 12:30 AM
Opening night a whitewash of 6-0 scorelines
Sport

Opening night a whitewash of 6-0 scorelines

28 Jul 10:09 PM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Gisborne Herald
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Gisborne Herald
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP