There was a recent awards ceremony held at Aussie World for the members of the Noosa Athletics Club celebrating both Noosa’s Little Athletics and the Noosa (senior) Athletics achievements for the 2021/22 season.
In the words of Noosa Athletics head coach Mick Hooper, “A great day was had by all and many thanks go to our hard-working committee and our age managers for a very successful season. We hope to see everybody back for the 2022/23 season.
“One of the highlights for us was seeing our senior athletes mixing with our juniors after competing together at the Australian championships in Sydney.
“Our club has been very pleased with the overall efforts with multiple top 10 performances in the nine days of competition, not only held in very trying conditions, but also against the best athletes in the nation.
“The two major awards for Noosa athletics went to Kristie Edwards (highest achievements) and Jaxon Retchless (most improved). For our little athletes, every athlete was presented with a competitive medal for the ’20/21 season and the tiny tot athletes’ all received a trophy and this is always a highlight of the day.”
Each age group from u/6 to u/17 both boys and girls was called up onto the stage where they were presented with awards as champions, runners-up and achievers. It is this type of gesture at season’s end that gives the very young encouragement to continue and return for another season. In the years ahead, who knows what achievements will result from this gesture of encouragement and support.
At the same time the work of the volunteers was also recognised.
Amongst the many major recipients were the age manager of the year Craig Tindal, and volunteer of the year Jeff Coward.
Among the competitors were – Encouragement Award Clara Elliott, Spirit Award Amelia Britten, Most Improved William Tillitson, Coaches Award Taya Clayton and Champion Athlete Dianne Ladewig.
Down through the years there have been many athletes from this club who have won state national and international representation and the coaching and care such as this is where it all starts. We wish them every success in the seasons ahead.
Lifesaving
At the recent Surf Life Saving Australian Championships, the boat crews from Coolum Beach really made their presence felt.
In what some boat sweeps described as a dangerous surf, their results were indeed outstanding.
Club sweep and head coach David Toomba summed it up beautifully when he said, “Coolum Beach went to dominate in their category and did exactly that.
“In the u/23s women they won the gold medal on the Saturday and next day the Open Women’s won the bronze. It was a challenging week with dangerous surf conditions, and many days waiting on the beach to compete. The entire boat section showed their true colours, working as a unit with every member there to support.”
Despite starting the Saturday with a heavy backshoot and rollover in the warm- up, the u/23s finished the day winning the final to become the Australian champions. Another factor that makes their win so memorable is that during the season there were only three (out of a crew of four) consistent rowers : Aqua Meanie, Grace Floyd and Lucy Cullen and a different fill in at every carnival. One such lady was Tori Coppen who often made the effort to travel all the way from Soldiers Beach in North Queensland.
Sunday bought in a glassy four to five foot swell and for the women’s open crew, known as the Thundercrackers, it was to be their day. The crew which consisted of Jessica Arvela, Madison Brown, Courtney Roman and Maggie Collins, wrote, according to sweep David Toomba, the book on resilience and never say die attitude, rowing seven races in one day.
They were definitely ready for a big day of surf.
When it came to the final, David safely swept them through the conditions, enabling the crew to show their strength and surf skills to row down several crews giving them third place and the bronze medal in the Australian championship.
Toomba extended a big thank you to the legendary Elly Gills for stepping in to help over a period of three weeks when the crew was short.
“This contribution enabled us to finish where we did today. This was the only Open crew to make the finals in the Australian ASRL Championships and the Surf Life Saving Championships of Australia, and win medals in both. They certainly deserve to be ranked number one open women’s crew of Australia.”
In summarising, a club spokesman thanked David and wife Kate (support group ) for their leadership, integrity and commitment. “There were many respected sweeps and rowers who approached members of Coolum to congratulate us. They specifically mention Dave for his sweeping and coaching.”
For a competitor to be acknowledged by his peers is, of course, the ultimate. Well done to Dave and all involved.
Noosa boat section came home with one medal, a bronze won by the Condors Masters crew.
However, boat captain Andrew Fox said, “We are happy with the overall result. We sent five crews to the national titles and three of the five made the finals. With a big murderous sea such as our people experienced, luck plays a big factor, so we were happy to have the three crews rowing for medals in the finals.’’
For the Noosa team, two of our younger members were once again amongst the medals. One was Joe Glassock who won a silver in first aid and Kai Thompson gold in the beach flags.
This is not their first medals for both of these young men have now been winning medals at both state and national titles on several occasions, but because their events are not blue ribbon, they receive very little attention. However, next week we will take a closer look at both these young clubbies and their achievements at both.
It would be remiss of us if we didn’t take the moment to acknowledge the performance of the Northcliffe Open surf swimmer Nick Sloman in winning the Open Surf Race Championship of Australia. On doing this, Sloman, who started his career in the Sunshine Beach club then joined Noosa, where he won the first two of his four consecutive titles, has now joined that elite group who have won this prestigious title four times in a row. Well done young man.
