Surf lifesaving: Second win for Beattie

Max Beattie capped a magnificent summer by winning the open ironman title at the State New Zealand surf lifesaving championships in Mount Maunganui.

The 21-year-old Omanu club member started his season in November by helping New Zealand win the Rescue 2012 world title in Adelaide, which included finishing second to the great Shannon Eckstein in the ironman.

He backed up his brilliance by successfully defending the national title he won for the first time in Gisborne last year.

"The second one is definitely sweeter," Beattie said. "There was a lot of talk that I wouldn't be able to do it again because the race went so perfectly for me last year and I had a big target on my back this year but I just went out and took the bull by the horns. You can fluke one win but you can't fluke a second."

Beattie finished ahead of Mount Maunganui pair George Haynes and Andrew Newton, opening a lead on the opening board leg and never relinquishing it. While Omanu stirred emotions on the beach by importing three Australian competitors, Gold Coast-based Beattie used a young club mate, Ben Cochrane, as motivation.

"He's 16-years-old and beat guys three years older. He's an absolute freak and if the club keeps producing kids like him, we've got a pretty bright future," Beattie said.

Haynes, a Great Britain team member who has been training and patrolling in Mount Maunganui all summer, won the surf race title from Midway's Mike Janes and seven-time winner Glenn Anderson (New Plymouth Old Boys) third, while Haynes and Newton also anchored the host club's open men's taplin-winning team as their club strolled to overall honours.

Mount Maunganui collected the Alan Gardner Trophy for the fourth time in seven years, finishing on 136 points, 14 clear of Papamoa, with Red Beach (69), Omanu (53) and Mairangi Bay (51) rounding out the top-five.

Mount didn't have things all their own way, however. Rising kayaker Caitlin Ryan (Red Beach) upstaged Mount's Olympic champion Lisa Carrington in the open women's ski final, claiming her second consecutive win in the event. Carrington was second and Fitzroy's Rebecca Cole was third, with Ryan wisely avoiding a 2.5m wave that came through the field.

"A bomb came through as we were coming in and I pulled off it. I knew I wouldn't be able to hold it," said the 21-year-old, who started competitive kayaking five months ago.