By Ron Lane
Last weekend competitors from our local surf clubs Sunshine Beach and Noosa Heads travelled to Broadbeach on the Gold Coast to take part in the Queensland Surf Life Saving Championships; and both teams made their presence felt.
In what was described as a small surf Noosas currant Australian Open Ironwoman Champion Lana Rogers, added another title to her credit by winning the Queensland Open Ironwoman title. Earlier in the day Lana won silver in the open belt race, silver in the open surf race and a bronze in the surf teams. “I am very happy with my overall performance,” she said. “Coming into the Aussie titles it is a great confidence builder; in particular my second place in the surf race.’’
Other outstanding performances came from Nick Sloman gold in the mens open surf race and Electra Outram, who competing in the u/19s, won three silver medals in the Iron Woman, Surf Race and Board. For Electra this has been a continuation of her good form at previous carnivals: she has shown that anything is possible at the forthcoming National Titles.
Once again we had a truly outstanding performance from the boat section. “We had a great carnival,” said boat sweep David Tomba. “We sent 10 crews to the titles and 8 of the ten made the finals with only 1 not making the podium.” Perhaps the highlight for the boaties would have to be the performance of the two u/19 girls’ crews. Once again these two crews, affectionately known as the Spangled Drongos and the Scrub Turkeys made the final in their division and again finished with silver (Scrub Turkeys) and bronze medals. (Spangled Drongos)
It was these two crews who last season in “the biggest surf we had ever seen,” made the final of the Australian Surf Rowers League Championships and finished with the silver and bronze; all season they have featured in podium finishers.
Not to be outdone the Reserve grade ladies, the Chums, won the silver in their final. This was despite drawing the very bad alley 6; another gutsy performance. Rowing in the mens 160 Masters, the Toucans and the Macaws, also gained silver and bronze. In the 180 mens division, the Emus won silver and in the 220, Condors bronze. With these consistent results the performance and dedication of boat sweeps David Tomba and Mick Gardner must be acknowledged. In the words of the Surf Sports Director Peter French. “These crews are very settled and their performance has been outstanding.”
“Our Sunshine Beach team despite being small had a great weekend said,” Head Coach Josh Minogue. “We finished in the top 10 for the second straight year; there were a lot of close calls with many just missing out on the medals” Once again this club has shown great strength with outstanding performances from their u/17 teams.
In the relay events the boys won silver on the ski and in the girls won a silver on the boards and in the surf teams the bronze. Outstanding efforts from amongst the girls came from Ruby Nolan and Charlie McKinley when both doubled up to compete in the board relay and surf teams .For Ruby Nolan it has also been a great season for this young lady has repeatedly been amongst the medals at many carnivals.
Another encouraging factor has been the number of contestants from both clubs who have made the finals and just missed a medal; too many to name. In this factor Sunshine was indeed very unlucky. A great effort from both clubs
