Ron Lane
Members of the Noosa Barbell club, situated at Cross Fit 4566 1/15 Lionel Donovan Drive Noosaville, gathered at their clubhouse on Saturday for their first in-house competition of the 2022 season.
Senior coach Woogie Marsh said, “The members have completed a long period of base training at the club in readiness for the 2022 championship season. With 13 lifters rostered for the day’s events, the session was definitely a big one. This was very successful with a mixture of experience being shown by the first timers to seasoned competitors: and members stepping forward from all age groups. Some fantastic numbers were hit by all involved in both the snatch and the clean and jerk, thus showing the club is well placed for another fantastic year on the national weightlifting circuit.”
On the day the club played host to guest lifters from Cougars Weightlifters Club, a club that trains under Australian coach Miles Wydall. During the session, two members of the Cougar Club, Nya Hayman and Tayal Stephens were attempting to qualify for the youth world titles to be held in Mexico later this year. Both were successful in their attempts and we wish them well in Mexico.
The club expressed a big vote of thanks to all volunteers who officiated and helped to make the day a big success.
Next on the agenda for the club is the youth and u/15 state titles to be held in six weeks. This will be followed by the masters’ state titles, also to be held in six weeks.
For anyone interested in a career in weightlifting, email the club on noosabarbellcoach@icloud.com
Rugby
Once we again we proudly see sporting clubs stepping forward to participate in a charity fundraising event.
This time it was the Queensland Reds Rugby Union who held a charity match between the Vintage Reds XV and Tonga Invitational XV to raise money to help Tonga recover from the damage caused in Tonga’s capital by the volcano eruption and the subsequent tsunami on 15 January this year. The Ray White Noosa Dolphins Rugby club also donated $500 to the UNICEF Australia Tongan Recovery Appeal which featured current Dolphin Rod Davies, past Dolphins Tom McVerry and Nick Gregor ski, and junior dad George Smith.
This week it was good to see our local rugby clubs’ senior men and women teams in full fitness mode, under the guidance of the club’s strength and conditioning coach Ryan Shackley. Shackley, who joined the club this season, is a highly experienced elite performance coach who is also involved in coaching the Sunshine Coast Falcons and Coolum Beach Surf Boat crews. The Dolphins will play host to the Helensvale Hogs on Saturday 5 March, the first of three trial matches scheduled to take place at Dolphin Oval.
News from the junior ranks tells us that new junior president Adam Kelcraft and junior vice president Budda Dwyer, welcomed both returning and new players to the club. Two successful sign-on days have also been finalised. With player numbers again exceeding expectations, the Dolphins will once again field teams in each age group from u/6, to Junior Colts. Some age groups will enter two teams in the Sunshine Coast Competition. Also recruiting is still under way for womens’ under 19 Colts and girls under 13,15 and17 in Sevens Rugby.
Rowing
Despite not coming home from the Australian Surf Rowers League Open Championships with a bag full of medals, Noosa’s boat captain Andrew Fox tells us the results achieved by the boat crews have shown an overall improvement in their performance and added to their self-confidence.
This has been the result of a great effort by sweeps, Mickey Gardner and Stuart Cooper.
With the carnival at Elouera NSW being postponed on Thursday, the Masters started their campaign on Friday, rowing in flat glassy conditions, but with a nasty shore dump. The Condors rowed strongly and finished seventh on a points’ tally. Their second crew, the Emus, rowed with confidence and were unlucky to finish just out of the medals in fourth place.
The Bandits reserve grade women’s crew, also on Friday, worked hard through the rounds to qualify for the semi finals on the Saturday.
Conditions on this day were indeed tough with many crews being rolled over and, despite making it out and back, the Bandits were pipped on the line, just missing the finals. A finish in the top 10 has made the women hungry for both the state and nationals.
The u/19 girls, the Tweeties and the Dodos, waited three days to begin their competition on the Sunday and in doing so, struck the toughest conditions of the carnival with big swells and high winds.
Their performance saw the Tweeters make the semi finals but, again in a photo finish, they just missed a place in the finals. However, their efforts saw them finish in the top eight in Australia. For a crew with limited experience in such conditions, this was indeed a great effort. This has been a great indicator for big things to come for Noosa’s young women.
The Dodos came from behind to secure a place in the finals after sweep Stuart Cooper dialled a wave from out the back, right through to dry sand. Unfortunately they finished in fourth place, but once again their overall performance was a tribute to the club.
Now it’s back to the hard grind of training in preparation for the State Titles in two weeks, followed by the Nationals in four. Great effort to all involved and best wishers for the State and Nationals.
Karate
At the recent Queensland Cup Tournament held in Brisbane, our local club Karate Noosa -WSKF,(World Shotokan Karate Federation) was very successful.
Under the leadership of Head Sensi Bryan Dukas 6th Dan, the team came home with a total of 16 medals: seven gold,eight silver and one bronze. Results such as this reflect greatly on the standard of coaching from within the club. Working along with Bryan Dukas is an instructional team consisting of Rick Hislop 5th Dan and others.
Star of the day was definitely Sophia Innis who finished the tournament with four medals, three gold and one silver. For this young lady her major goal for the year is to contest the World Shotokan Championships in Japan in August. We wish her well.
For this young lady and other club members hoping to travel to Japan for the championships and advanced training, the club has received good news.
In June Mike Dukas sensei 8th Dan will spend two months in the dojo preparing students for their sojourn in Japan. Mike, who hails from South Africa, is the father of Bryan Dukas. Now an instructor of international renown, he travels to various countries where he conducts training seminars. Young students could not wish for a better grounding in preparing, both physically and mentally, for what lays ahead Japan.
The next major tournament for the club will be the Queensland Titles to be held in March and these will serve as the selection for the national championships also in August.
Last weekend the Noosa Heads SLSC once again played host to the annual swimming carnival, the Noosa Summer Swim, one of the World Series Events. The carnival which was held at Noosa Main Beach saw some 2000-plus swimmers register for a program of five events, the 300m for kids, the 1km, 2km, 3km and the main event the 5km for the seniors. Once again, the responsibility of providing the water safety was left in the hands of the Noosa Heads and Sunshine Beach lifesavers.
With Noosa now being something of an international tourist resort, providing water safety patrols on occasions such as this is of the utmost importance.
Therefore, it is only natural that qualified lifesavers from the Noosa club volunteer to do so. Therefore, at the completion of their patrols their contribution should be acknowledged.
The hours that some of the volunteer clubbies donate, with no financial reward, is outstanding. For example, Noosa club captain Roger Aspinall, (just to name one of many) who had the overall responsibility for all water safety, started his day at 5.15am and finished at 3pm.
This, plus the insulting remarks that were thrown at them by some motorist (early in the day) goes beyond the pale. Lifesaving sometimes goes beyond patrolling the beach. The rescue craft used on the day, consisted of five IRBs and 20 rescue boards. To our lifesavers many thanks.
