Competition Update - Nov 22

Competition Update - November 2022
There has been some amazing results across all disciplines by our members since the beginning of the season:

Triple Crown Round 1 - Wanda
On Saturday 15 October 2022 3 members (Georgie Kiernan, Vectis Buckett and Charlie White) competed in round 1 of the Sydney Branch Triple Crown Series at Wanda. Each round consists of 3 surf races and 3 board races. (This round however only had 2 surf races due to conditions).

The carnival is split into 2 age groups, Youth (u15) and Open (u17, u19, Opens, Masters). Georgie & Vectis were fortunate that they are at the upper end of their age group, while Charlie was at the bottom end of his age group. When you see the results below, you'll realise that this did not phase Charlie. In tricky conditions there were some great performances from all three of our members. Their results are as follows:
Georgie (Youth female) Swim 1 – 4th | Swim 2 – 3rd | Board 1 – 2nd | Board 2 – 1st | Board 3 - 1st
Vectis (Youth male)        Swim 1 – 4th | Swim 2 – 3rd | Board 1 – 6th | Board 2 – 4th | Board 3 – 5th
Charlie (Open male)      Swim 1 – 6th | Swim 2 – 1st | Board 1 – 10th 

Sydney Water Round 2 (Interbranch Trials Opens)
Aidan Renford U14: 7th iron, 3rd swim but given 4th, 6th board
Georgie Kieran U15: Iron 6th, Swim 4th, Board 2nd.
Jasmin Alexiou  U15: Iron 2nd, Swim 1st, Board 7th
Charlie White U17: Iron 7th, Swim 6th, Ski 7th
Vectis Buckett U15: 8th surf race, 8th Iron man
Chris Kondilios U14: 1st Flags, 1st sprint
Jess Henville U15: 2nd flags, 3rd sprint
Josh Ballard U15: 1st flags
Luke Newrick U15: 1st sprint, 2nd flags
Ruby Gray U17: 1st sprint, 1st Flags

Wanda One Club Carnival 
On Saturday 26th November, we sent a small but committed team to the Wanda One Club carnival to participate in one of the biggest carnivals of the season. It is the only carnival of the season that has a combined point score from Nippers through to Masters, meaning it really is ONE CLUB. With the assistance of our Junior friends, I am extremely proud to announce that we finished second, only to the host club Wanda, who had a much bigger senior team in attendance.

There were some late changes to logistics for the day due to expected surf conditions and a lack of a vital element for a surf carnival - a beach. Due to these circumstances, the Nippers water was moved to Cronulla , the sand competitors were asked to attend North Cronulla. Just to confuse things a bit more - the 1 and 2 km runners were at Wanda first before heading to other locations for the rest of their events. The u14s to Masters surf events and all R&R events remained at Wanda. It may have been ONE CLUB, but it was three beaches.

YOUR MEMBERS who represented YOU were Ruby Gray (u17), Luke Newrick and Jessica Henville (both u15) in the sand events, while Jasmine Alexiou, Maddie Chesher, Genevieve Dommel, Georgie Kiernan and Vectis Buckett (all u15) were our water representatives. Jessica got the day off to a great start with a dominant performance winning the 2km run and backed it up with a 3rd place in the flags. Ruby blitzed the competition once again, grabbing the chocolates in both the Flags and Sprint event. While Luke pitted himself against the older u17 boys in the flags and came home with a 3rd place, while winning the u15 sprint.

Over in the wet stuff our u15 girls Cameron Relay (Jasmine, Georgie and Isabella (u14)) were unlucky not to stand on the top step of the podium, finishing second in a tight finish with a strong Manly team. 

While there wasn't a Surf Teams event, the performance of our girls in the u15's would have taken 1st place by some margin, with exceptional swims from Jasmine (2nd), Georgie (4th), Genevieve (11th) and Maddie (15th).
This was backed up in the Ironperson event with Georgie (4th) and Jasmine (9th) showcasing their skills in tricky conditions. The final event of the day was the board race. This is Georgie's pet event and she showed everyone on the beach why, pushing the reigning Australian Champion all the way to finish 2nd. Jasmine also performed well in her least favourite event, making the final.

Over in the boys water area, Vectis had a love/hate relationship with the board, so we'll focus on his Surf race, where he has taken his performances to another level this year, finishing 5th in an extremely competitive field.

That is it for local carnivals for this year. We'll keep training over the Christmas break before getting back into the racing in January.

Qld State Open Water Swimming Championships - Coolum Beach, Sunshine Coast 
Jasmine Alexiou competed in the 14 years 5km open water swim at the Queensland State Open Water Swimming Championships on 15 October.  She completed the race in 4th position (just missing 3rd place by less than 9 seconds) in a personal best time of 1:02:35.80; Jasmine lowered her personal best time (1:10:40.73) set at the Australian Championships in January 2022 by more than 8 minutes.

Jazz is now ranked #1 in NSW for 5km open water swimming for her age (previously #7) & ranked #4 nationally (previously #13).  An amazing achievement given she is only at the start of her preparation for the new open water & surf lifesaving season which culminates in the Australian Open Water Championships in January 2023, State SLS Champs in February 2023 & Aussies in March 2023.

Interbranch Team Selection
After some amazing results at the Interbranch Team selection carnivals it was no surprise that South Maroubra is well represented in the Sydney Branch Team. Congratulations to the following Clubbies for making it into the teams: 
U17 Female - Ruby Gray
U15 Male - Luke Newrick
U15 Female - Jasmine Alexiou
U15 Female - Jessica Henville
U15 Female - Georgie Kiernan (reserve)
U14 Male - Chris Kondilios
U14 Male - Aidan Renford (reserve)
U13 Male - Rory Muldowney
U12 Male - Krishna Inder

NSW Waratahs
Slightly unrelated to Surf Lifesaving but wonderful news that our Clubbie, Tom Farr Jones and (ex Clubbie Luca Cleverely)  were been selected into the NSW Waratahs Under 16’s Squad. We would like to congratulate them on this wonderful achievement of being selected in a very talented squad and celebrate in their success - the team were unbeaten in a 5 match campaign and are the National Champs beating all other State Teams - well done. 


Finally thanks to Phil Stivano who has stepped down as Boat Coordinator responsibilities due to work commitments. A mid-season opening has arisen for Boat Coordinator (Captain). EOI to [email protected]