Golden trio: Waikanae’s IRB team Travis Mitchell, Hamish Swann and Harry Allan won three golds at the nationals at Waipu Cove in Northland. Picture by Paul Rickard
THE five Waikanae teams competing at the North Island IRB championships at the weekend came home with 14 medals, six of them gold.
Kaiaponi Farms Waikanae finished second on overall points across the two-day IRB (inflatable rescue boat) event at Waipu Cove in Northland.
They picked up six gold, five silver and
three bronze medals across the five events, amassing 94 points, to finish runners-up behind Waikato club Sunset Beach, who had 147.
Ōpunake from Taranaki were third overall on 92 points.
Waikanae got their medal run started on Saturday with a gold to their under-19 women’s team of Elle Williams (driver), Bella Fitzharris (crew) and Michaela Clearwater (patient) in the IRB tube rescue event.
Harry Allan (driver), Travis Mitchell (crew) and Hamish Swann (patient) got in on the gold medal action, too, in the under-23 men’s tube rescue.
Then in the open teams’ finals, the men (driver Connor Mitchell, crewman Oliver Shivnan and patient Swann) won silver, as did the women (driver Britta Carroll, crew woman Ana Naden and patient Matahari Richards).
Two other golds were won by Waikanae on Saturday in the mass rescue, to Carroll, Naden and patients Clearwater and Shivnan in the open women’s final, and to Allan, Mitchell and patients Richards and Swann in the under-23 men’s final.
Earlier in the day, Waikanae had picked up a silver and two bronze medals in the assembly rescue finals, to the open men and women, and the under-23 men.
Waikanae won gold in the open men’s teams final yesterday — Connor Mitchell, Oliver Shivnan, Harry Allan, Travis Mitchell and patient Michaela Clearwater.
Their open women’s team won the bronze medal.
The Waikanae gold rush finished yesterday with the u23 men’s team victory in the single-rescue final.
Waikanae open men and women scored silver medals in both those single-rescue finals to complete a highly competitive effort by the Gisborne club.
Results at Waipu Cove augur well for the Waikanae prospects at the New Zealand IRB championships to be staged at Waihi in the middle of April.
