Cronulla Surf Lifesaving Club’s Carla Papac stole the show at the Australian Surf Lifesaving Championships on the Sunshine Coast, powering to victory in the under-19s ironwoman to be named national champion.
It was one of the most dominant performances of the week as Papac led comfortably from start to finish.
It was a successful championships for Cronulla as Ngaire Hadfield won gold in the under-17s beach sprint and was part of the under-17 beach sprint relay team – alongside Nicole Banning, Phoebe La Coste and Talei Holmes – that also won gold.
Hadfield was also named the recipient of the Tony Purcell Award for her efforts at the titles.
North Cronulla’s Oliver Hoare became a five-time Australian two-kilometre beach run champion when he won the under-19s event.
Hoare has now won every age group from under-15s to 19s.
North Cronulla also took out the boat relay.
It was a huge championships for Wanda’s Ali Najem, who finally won the open 2km beach sprint title.
Najem had secured second place finishes in 2013 and 2015 as well as a third in 2014.
Wanda also won gold in the five man R&R thanks to the team of Brock Douglas, Grant Sandstrom, Kurt Melville, Blake McCrindle and Stuart Smith.
The mixed team of Katie Spinner, Emily Caterson, Brock Douglas, Col Jones and Grant Sandstrom also won the gold.
Wanda just missed out on gold in the surf belt, finishing second behind North Burleigh.
There was an agonising 20 minute wait to find out the result after a close finish between Wanda, Manly and North Burleigh.
Defending beach sprint champion Elouera’s Elly Graf had an Aussie’s to forget when she stumbled with the finish line in sight while leading in the women’s beach sprint final.
Graf had been gunning for her sixth national sprint title after scoring the rare sprint and flags double at the state titles last month.
To make matters worse, Graf was then disqualified in the beach flags event after being ruled to have broken in her heat.
Graf put in a protest which was eventually upheld, but by the time a decision had been made on the protest, the competition had advanced to the final stage, which was ruled too late for Graf to be reintroduced.
The young Elouera combination of Christopher King and Jake Evans did not make that mistake when they sprinted out of the water to take out the under-17s male board rescue final.
It was a great win for King and Evans and points to a big future for the winning pair.
- More theleader.com.au
