Surf Lifesaving: Stars come out for four-day nationals

New Zealand's top surf lifesavers will take some decent form into the national championships, which start with the masters titles in Whakatane today.

With record numbers attending the four-day carnival at Ohope Beach, a big influx of Australian-based stars will join the fray.

Several picked up decent finishes at the Queensland state titles last weekend, including reigning New Zealand ironman champion Daniel Moodie.

Moodie finished fourth in the surf race at Kurrawa Beach on the Gold Coast, behind Olympic swimmer Ky Hurst and Australian representatives Corey Jones and Dev Lahey, while he and his Northcliffe clubmates finished fifth in the team's surf race.

Midway's Mike Janes teamed with Hurst, Phil Clayton and Andrew Mewing as the Kurrawa club came third in the same event, while Janes also picked up bronze in the 2km beach run and the open taplin.

Kevin Morrison helped Northcliffe win the tube rescue title, was fourth in the open ski final and second in the ski relay final.

Paekakariki's world champion sprinter Ben Willis also showed he's returning to top form, grabbing silvers in the beach flags and the beach sprint.

His Northcliffe beach relay team - also featuring former New Zealand 400m champion Callum Taylor - finished third, with Taranaki's Paul Cracroft-Wilson anchoring Kurrawa's victory.

Cracroft-Wilson won his third New Zealand flags title last year, again preventing South Brighton's Morgan Foster collecting an incredible 10th title and with Willis, the trio are set for more fireworks in Ohope.

Moodie is also in the middle of an imposing streak, having won the previous four national ironman finals.

The 22-year-old Hawkes Bay star will be looking to move ahead of former Olympic kayaker Ian Ferguson and Waimairi's Geoff Walker, both on four, and closer to Cory Hutchings' remarkable 11 ironman titles.

Having made his debut on Australia's lucrative ironman series this year, however, Moodie is starting to feel the pinch.

"The season's been long and I haven't had a weekend off since early January," Moodie said. "That's starting to hit me now. The series is over and it's almost like my body wants to start winding down."

Moodie ended Glenn Anderson's six-year unbeaten streak in the surf race last year, although the 30-year-old New Zealand captain cannot be discounted in any of the big events this weekend.

Orewa's Rachel Clarke will look to build on her brilliant double last year when she collected the under-19 and open ironwoman races.

Her main competition will come from Australian-based Maddie Boon and Westshore's national representative Nikki Cox.

Defending club champions Midway will have the biggest contingent of athletes at the carnival, with a 80-strong lineup adding to the record number of entries.

In all, 1269 qualified lifeguards will compete, up from 1204 last year and 1173 from two years ago when Ohope last hosted the event. It's a huge jump from 2000, when 839 competitors turned up, and puts a healthy spin on the state of surf lifesaving as a sport.

Among the bigger clubs are Mt Maunganui with 70 athletes, Papamoa (77) and Auckland clubs Piha (78) and Red Beach (73).

- NZPA