Second gold for Kapene

AMONG THE MEDALS: Waikanae Surf Life Saving Club member Chloe Kapene, here competing in the board in the Gisborne junior surf lifesaving champs, won gold in the under-14 beach sprint at Oceans ’21 yesterday.File picture by Paul Rickard

SURF LIFESAVING by Murray Robertson

A SECOND gold medal to Waikanae’s Chloe Kapene and a first in her first New Zealand “Oceans” junior championships for Midway’s Lilla Hain were highlights for Gisborne at Mt Maunganui yesterday.

Kapene added the under-14 beach sprint title to the run-swim-run gold she won on Day 1, Thursday.

Dawson Building Midway speedster Lilla Hain won the gold medal in the under-11 beach sprint.

Georgie Beaufoy, from Kaiaponi Farms Waikanae, won the bronze in the u12 girls’ beach sprint.

Surf conditions were testing for the youngsters yesterday, at a metre, but the waves were tipped to get bigger today.

“Competitors from all three clubs handled the surf really well yesterday, and we should see them do that again in the bigger conditions today,” a spokesman for the Gisborne clubs said.

There were some strong performances yesterday in the heats and semifinals of the diamond (board and swim) races.

Ella Sutton, of Midway, won her diamond semifinal to advance to the final of the u13 event as did Kapene, of Waikanae.

Riversun Wainui’s Charlie Keepa finished third in her u13 Diamond semi to make the final, along with Midway’s Emily Petro,

Austin Fergus, of Midway, qualified for the diamond finals, too, with a third placing in his semifinal in the u14 boys’ event.

The u14 board and tube rescue events are on today, along with the beach flags, and the Gisborne contingent, 42 of them, should do well.

The district will be well represented in the board, surf race and diamond finals tomorrow.