With just one day remaining for the Lifesaving World Championships on the Gold Coast, the InterClub point scores are in hot demand across both the Youth and Open competitions at the pool and beach.
Burleigh Heads Mowbray Park clubby Lily O’Sullivan was on fire in the Open Women’s races at Kurrawa, adding the Open Women’s Board and Surf Race World Titles to her list of prior Youth World Titles.
After producing a dominant board race performance, O’Sullivan said she was so happy to be back after injuries.
“This is so crazy, I really didn’t expect that at all. We’ve been working hard as a squad on our board at Burleigh in the off season, so I’m really excited to see it work out.”
“I’m so proud of how far I’ve come. It was a bit mentally tough, getting through that first year of Opens and racing those girls, not having my own age group to fall back on. But I’m so happy with how I’ve bounced back.”
Coming from behind in the surf race, O’Sullivan rode the perfect wave in coming in over the top of Paris Olympic Medallist Lani Pallister who had held the lead for much of the race.
“I am so shocked right now, I feel like I can’t speak. I was on Naomi and Lana’s feet the whole way around the cans and I was just trying to keep up with them and stop them zooming off.”
“A lot goes into our training. I’d like to thank my coach Michael King and my club BHMP for all their support, my sponsors and my entire support network that continue to support me through everything.”
It was a West Australian success story in the Men’s Surf Ski Race with Sorrento SLSC member Patrick Eley storming home ahead of a field full of Olympians and Ironmen to secure the World Championship Title.
“I love this stuff, coming in on a westerly: it’s the same as Western Australia, so I was sort of licking my lips on the way in. We get this weather every afternoon, so I’m stoked,” he said.
“Thanks to everyone at Sorrento, to my mum and dad. Also thanks to my flatmates for getting me through.”
Zach Morris, BMD Northcliffe SLSC, showed the importance of land training when he left his rivals behind in the sprint finish of the Men’s Surf Race to bring home gold, following up his win during the National Teams event earlier in the week.
“It’s been a pretty tough program, backing up from last week has been pretty hard. It’s basically been taper then race then taper again.The beach relays have been tough but I don’t mind a bit of sprinting, it’s fun.”
“I knew Cooper [Williams] and I started on the best side of the swim and the start is usually my thing, so I knew I had to work with him on the way. We were first and second on the cans on the outside. I was hoping we’d get our own clean race from there and we did.”
“I’m a big team player and watching all the teams and individuals win yesterday was great to see. Even with the youth, I watched them do their races too.”
Across at the Pool the Youth teams were battling it out for precious points to add to their Club tallies with athletes not letting the long program dampen their fighting spirit.
In the women’s 200m Super Lifesaver event, local Gold Coast clubbie Bianca Rayward (Burleigh Heads Mowbray Park) left the field behind with a six second victory to take out the World Title.
Coming off the back of a huge National Teams program and three big days of InterClub she was stoked with her win.
“I just wanted to redeem myself after last week for the Australian team where I messed up my skills, so I’m really happy because I had the perfect race today.”
“I’ve spent a lot of time with my coaches and my mum to get my skills to where they are today, so I’m really grateful and super stoked to be where I am today.”
Germany’s Luckenwalde Club also had a stellar day in the pool with Leo Ilias winning the Men’s 50m Manikin Carry ahead of Australia’s Riley Brennan and their Men’s team taking out the 4 x 25m Manikin Relay.
After this individual race Leo Ilias said he was happy to put it all together.
“It was a really hard race, I think I took two breaths the whole time. I’m really excited to have won. I’ll celebrate with my team.”
“It just feels amazing to also win with my teammates. It was a good race for us and I’m very happy we got first place.”
Further down Kurrawa Beach, it was New Zealand Surf lifesaving Club, Sunset Beach, that took out the InterClub IRB competition after a dominant performance across the finals races.
Team member Shane Edwards said, “This feels unreal, we’ve put in so much effort. The boys smashed it, they set us up well and we just continued with it. Huge team effort, really shows the strength of our club, just unreal. It feels amazing. We’ve had massive support from everyone who has come here too.”
