By TERRY MADDAFORD
Landing the big one on a beach in Northern Italy this week capped Rachael Anderson's lifelong love affair with water.
Her triumph in the women's open surf race at the surf lifesaving championships in Viareggio added yet another world title to this year's growing list of victorious New Zealanders.
At
30, Anderson was the oldest and - more importantly, she insists - the most experienced competitor. That, she feels, was a contributing factor in her clear-cut victory.
And hard work.
"I certainly felt like grandma when we lined up on the beach," Anderson said from Italy. "But, the older you get the tougher you become."
She is no stranger to competition at the highest level.
In a well-balanced sporting career Anderson, who first represented her country as a 16-year-old in a swimming development team at the Asia Pacific Championships in Jakarta, has won national titles in and out of the pool.
A more than accomplished breaststroke exponent, she won senior titles over 50m and 200m in 1992 and 100m a year later.
In the surf, as a member of Gisborne's Waikanae and, at other times, Midway clubs, she won the surf race in 1995 and 2000 and the individual belt race in 1999 and 2000.
She has been competitive in other surf disciplines, including the tube rescue and as a member of the champion board relay team.
These days, Anderson, who maintains she will always be a "Gissie" girl, lives on Australia's Sunshine Coast where she has just bought a physiotherapy practice, which requires juggling work, training, lifeguard duties and competing.
"I have been in Australia for two and a half years training with [coach] Michael King," said Anderson. "I get up at four o'clock in the morning to go training. We do between 1 1/2 and two hours in the pool and another three hours at night, which includes a beach session and some running.
Why the move to Australia?
"The climate and the training. And, after 28 years in Gisborne, I always had a fear of dying a spinster without trying something else.
"My brother Glenn and I have been living at Mooloolaba and are members of the surf club there.
"We have to do 25 hours of lifeguard duties a year, which means we are rostered for a minimum of eight half-days a year. They are much stricter about having to do that in Australia.
"Our job really is not to save lives, rather to get the prevention message across."
But, should the need arise, our newest world champion is well-equipped to effect any rescue.
In winning her world title, Anderson was first into the water - and first out.
"Surf swimming is an entirely different race," she said. "It's great not having to worry about the start or turning. In training we put plenty of emphasis on running, which paid off.
"On the day the conditions were really flat but we still had a bit of a wade and some little dolphin dives before we got to swim.
"Given the conditions, the European swimmers, who base their training almost entirely in the pool, thought they would dominate.
"I admit I thought that in the conditions it would be the hardest event for me to win. Maybe they did not have the early skills to be competitive. Once I hit the water I was not really threatened.
"Without being cocky, I had done so much hard work over the last six to eight months to feel confident."
Glenn Anderson, seen by many as Cory Hutchings' heir apparent as New Zealand's next Ironman great, joined Morgan Foster, Dean Kent and Steven Ferguson in winning gold in the beach relay. Foster claimed New Zealand's other gold in retaining his beach flags title.
What now for Rachael Anderson?
"Mum, who was over here for the championships, thinks I have been retiring every year for the last 12 years. There comes a time when you think there is more to life than getting up at 4am.
"The next worlds are in Melbourne in 2006. That is tempting. They are always tempting. I'll be knocking 32 then. But, who knows?"
Rachael Anderson
* Born: Gisborne, May 24, 1974.
* School: Lytton High, Gisborne.
* University: Otago 1993-97 (physiotherapy degree).
* Lives: Sunshine Coast, Australia.
* Titles: National swimming (pool), three. National surf lifesaving, four.
* World surf championship medals: Gold (surf race 2004), silver (beach relay 2002), bronze (Taplin relay 2004).
By TERRY MADDAFORD
Landing the big one on a beach in Northern Italy this week capped Rachael Anderson's lifelong love affair with water.
Her triumph in the women's open surf race at the surf lifesaving championships in Viareggio added yet another world title to this year's growing list of victorious New Zealanders.
At
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.