Twenty-six USC students are celebrating winning a huge haul of medals at the recent Australian Surf Life Saving Championships as they aim to make a difference both in and out of the water.
The surf lifesavers, who make up the largest proportion of athletes involved in USC’s High Performance Student Athlete program, returned from the Gold Coast earlier this month with luggage bulging with gold, silver and bronze.
In a field of many stars, Bachelor of Primary Education student Jordan Mercer from Noosa Heads Surf Life Saving Club won bronze in the Open single ski event.
It was the Noosa Heads lifesaver’s first competition since injuring her foot in the Ocean 6 series Ironwoman event at Coolum in late 2018.
Overall, USC student athletes raced in 65 grand final events and brought home 12 gold, 12 silver and 14 bronze medals. Six were selected to join the 24-strong Queensland invitational team, making up 25 percent of the state’s contingent.
USC’s Director of High Performance Sport Professor Brendan Burkett said while swimming, netball and cycling had become synonymous with sporting excellence at USC, surf lifesaving was leading the charge in terms of the number of student athletes involved.
“Surf lifesavers make up the biggest proportion of our high performance program with the number of youth age group athletes almost doubling over the last two years,” he said.
“It is great that they are choosing to stay on the Coast and study at USC, and we love watching them perform each year at Aussies. They have all done incredibly well.”
Most of the USC surf lifesavers are members of Alexandra Headland, Noosa, Maroochydore and Dicky Beach clubs, with some relocating from Mermaid Beach on the Gold Coast and from interstate clubs such as Byron Bay, Yamba, and Jan Juc.
