By Ron Lane
It has indeed been a busy time in the world of sport for our local athletes. State Championships for our amateur boxers, exponents of the martial arts and the lifesavers who contest the surf sport events.
For the members of the Sunshine Coast Martial Arts Shotokan Karate and Fitness Institute, the recent state titles held in Brisbane over two days, the overall results were indeed very good. For our Noosa team they finished with a total of 16 gold medals, 14 silver and 11 bronze: a team effort that saw them finish 2nd in the State. ‘’I am very happy with the overall results,” said Bryan Dukas Owner/Chief Instructor. As a result, two members will be going to Sydney to compete in the Australian Titles in April. When we take into consideration that some Brisbane clubs are four and five times bigger than our local club, it is indeed a great effort.
At present the club team is completing preparation for the Queensland Open Titles to be held in June. This is the selection criteria for the State Team to contest the Australian National Titles in October. On 8 May, the club will host the Sunshine Coast Challenge Tournament at the Noosaville State School: this will be open to all local dojos
For the lifesavers last weekend was the State Titles and Tugun Beach played host club. For the Noosa club, their boat section came home with a total of six medals:2 gold 1 silver and 3 bronze. The golds were won by the Masters 140 age group and u/19s ladies’ crew known as the kookaburras and the silver was won by the ladies’ u/23 crew (known as the Scrub Turkies).The three bronze medals were won by the 220yr age group the Condors, the u/23 ladies Spangled Drongos, and the Reserve Grade ladies crew, the Bandits.
Both boat captain Andrew Fox and boat coach/sweep Dave Tomba, were happy with the results; all crews that were entered for the titles made the finals. “We were very happy with our medal count,” said Fox. “What really pleased us was the fact that all crews made the finals; then with a 1m wave running, being in the right place to pick up a wave on the way home brings luck into the equation.”
Coach Tomba, “Our last major carnival will be the Aussie titles and these will be here on the Sunshine Coast in three weeks at Alexendra Headlands Beach. Alex will be one of the three beaches allocated to host the titles, with Maroochydore and Mooloolaba being the other two. Our last carnival before the titles will be at Dickey beach and this will be a good preparation for the Aussies.
At present we have a very strong female contingent: the stand out crew for the weekend was this years’ Queensland state representative crew the Kookaburras. At these state titles, they went through the heats undefeated to win the gold in the final. They had something to prove to themselves after a disappointing 4th place in the ASRL Australian Open.”
In the U/17 to Opens events Noosa won a silver in the open surf teams female and two bronze in the surf board rescue. This gave Noosa a total of 9 medals overall (the boats plus u/17 to Opens). This gave them an overall placing of 7th. For the Masters who fielded a massive team ,they finished in 3rd place overall: a really good performance.
For Sunshine Beach, they had a team of 20 competing and their overall performance was for Head Coach Josh Minogue, very pleasing. “We came home with a total of 4 medals 1 gold 1 silver and 2 bronze. I was very impressed with the performance of our ski paddlers: our ski paddlers train under coach Paul Gilmour: their performance for the future is indeed very promising.’’ In the medal tally the gold was won in the 2km Beach Run, the silver medal was won by the u/17 Female Ski Relay and the two bronze medals, again u/17 female division, surf team and surf board relay.
When we look at the finals of the various events, it is pleasing to note that the Sunshine team contested 13 finals and apart from two events, the remaining eleven were contested by members in the u/19s and u/17 age groups: of these, five were team events. Also, this speaks volumes for the seasons ahead and in particular the attitude towards teams. For Sunshine they were placed 14th overall on the points score.
For our Cooroy Impact Boxing Academy, the Queensland Novice Titles held in Brisbane were successful. “With a team of 8 fighters competing, our local team had a total of 6 wins with 4 going on to win medals; 2 gold and 2 silver. It was a heavy program with a total of 130 fights over the duration of three days,” said Impact coach Mark Evans. “For our team the females boxed in the 60 and 70 kilo divisions and the male boxed in the 54 and 60 kilo divisions. Perhaps the most pleasing aspect of all was the standard of boxing; for novice fighters the standard was indeed very high.”
For the club, their next tournament will in the country town of Dysart, west of Mackay. “This will be on 17 April at the big local show. So far, we have a total of 6 fighters who are matched up and as this will be the first- ever tournament, we are going to give the local people our support.” We wish all those involved all the very best.
