Bate Bay clubs all finished in the top 10 of the 2018 NSW Open Surf Lifesaving Championships at Blacksmiths Beach. But they couldn't get near Newport SLSC who topped the list boasting a final point score more than double that of the nearest club.
Wanda was the best placed finishing third with North Cronulla fifth, Cronulla sixth and Elouera ninth. The event attracted about 6000 competitors from all over NSW along with 600 volunteer officials.
Local champions included Sunday’s winner of the under-19s board race, Elouera’s Chris King, who was presented with the perpetual Jacob Lollback Trophy for his third straight victory in the event (U19 title and two U17 titles).
It was a big weekend for King who claimed Bronze in the U19 Ironman Race and the U19 Taplin and Gold in the U19 Rescue Tube Rescue with mates Jake, Connor and Issac.
Finals day also saw champions decided in the surf boats and the recent Trans Tasmans champions, Elouera’s Wilco crew, just snuck across the line to take the open women's event.
Unlike the water, where a big shore dump dictated which events could be run, the beach track was much more predictable with the North Cronulla girls on fire with the Rampoldi sisters the standout. Alex and Leah took first and second in the under-17s beach flags and first and third in the opens.
North Cronulla’s Lucy Flanagan, who missed out on winning the under-14s sprint last week, did one better and took out the under-15s beach sprint. She also took silver in the under-15s beach flags.
Neighbours Cronulla also had some great results led by Chloe Mannix-Power who did the double, winning the under-17s and open beach sprints. She was also part of the under-17s gold medal-winning beach relay team.
Michael Hanna from Elouera took out the under-19s and open beach sprint ahead of one of the favourites in Newport’s Jake Lynch.
In the 2km beach run, Ali Najem from Wanda won the strong open male division.
Overall Pointscore:
- Newport SLSC 553
- Manly LSC 247
- Wanda SLSC 221
- North Bondi SLSC 204
- North Cronulla SLSC 198
- Cronulla SLSC 196
- Redhead SLSC 144
- Umina SLSC 144
- Elouera SLSC 134