By Dave Gleeson
SUNSHINE BEACH NIPPERS
Over the weekend just gone, 17-19 February, the Queensland Junior State Life Saving titles were held in the calm waters of Hervey Bay.
With 150-plus clubs from all over Queensland competing at these three day championships, the action and competition was fierce.
This event is the ’Grand Final’ of the Nippers calendar, and with Queensland such a strong lifesaving state it is justifiably considered the best of the best in Australia.
Sunshine Beach SLSC took a team of 50 competitors from the Under 11-Under 15 age groups to the championships and after their recent success at the Sunshine Coast Championships, where they won the overall point-score in the water arena, there was big expectations from the team for another strong result.
And they didn’t fail to deliver with an amazing fifth place overall, behind mega clubs Maroochydore, Alex Headlands, Northcliffe and Currumbin. However, as Sunshine Beach is one of the smaller clubs, their effort at the championships earned them first place overall in the Handicap Division, this is determined by their overall points as measured against the number of Nippers competing.
This is an incredible result for this small local club.
Standout performances over the weekend were in the Under 13 girls’ arena with Abbie Tolano winning gold in the prestigious ironwoman event and Lulu Korac winning the Under 13 individual surf swim.
The Under 13 female team also took out Gold AND Silver medals in the surf teams event.
The Under 14 girls beach sprint relay team won Gold as well as did the Under 13 girls board relay team of Abbie Tolano and Freya Wilson.
There were also a significant number of silver and bronze medals and with points being awarded down to sixth place in all events which contributed to the team tally.
These results cap off an incredible year for the Sunshine Beach Surf Club’s surf sports competitors, and are the stepping stone for these youngsters to become volunteer lifeguards on the beaches in future, and use the skills they have learnt on the beach in competition to one day, maybe saving a life.
