NORTH KIRRA BEACH – It was billed as the clash of the swim kings but a new star was born in the one of the best ever Australian Surf Life Saving Championships Open Surf Race finals.
Big George O’Brien emerged from the North Kirra surf to take gold and upstage some of the sport’s biggest names.
The 23-year-old from Kurrawa couldn’t believe his eyes when he got to his feet and saw the finishing tape still in place, crossing the line ahead of Shannon Eckstein (Northcliffe), Tom Fraser-Holmes (Manly) and 10-times champion Ky Hurst (Kurrawa).
“I’m a massive fan of Ky’s. He’s one of my idols considering what he’s done in pool swimming, open water and surf, and to beat him in the surf race is just unbelievable,” O’Brien said.
“The field was unreal, that’s why I just could not believe the tape was still up.”
There was a big crowd and an air of expectation when the men’s field stood at the start line.
With surf king Hurst, Olympian Fraser Holmes, ironman Eckstein, Australian Swim team member Jordan Harrison and a host of other top swimmers at the start line, the field was the best for a surf race in many years.
And it was also one of the longest, with the swim cans set well past the break and turning it into a true test us surf skills and stamina. O’Brien said he was with Eckstein, Hurst and Fraser Holmes rounding the cans.
“Then a wave came through and I was at the top of it and all of a sudden I pulled down it,” he said.
“I looked up and no-one else was on it.
“Then I was in the gutter and dry sand could not come quick enough.” O’Brien’s next assignment will be in Cozumel, Mexico, for the FINA/HOSA 10K Marathon Swimming World Cup as he chases an open water swimming berth at the Rio Olympic Games.
Newport’s Georgia Miller was ecstatic as she crossed the line a comfortable winner of her second women’s Surf Race title.
The Newport star had won two years ago at North Kirra and tamed the choppy surf for finish ahead of Northcliffe pair Courtney Hancock and Rebecca Creedy.
“I think I was pretty young and naïve when I was 17 and didn’t know what it meant to win an Open Surf Race, Miller said.
“Coming through and racing all the open girls more has definitely put it into perspective.
“Oh my God, It’s huge, I can’t believe it.”
Miller was swimming alongside Hancock and Miranda Bell (Northcliffe) at the cans then found some good runners before catching a wave that took her clear of the field.
“I held it all the way to the gutter then I just sprinted my heart out coming in because I didn’t know if anyone had caught the wave,” she said.
“I lost sleep last night thinking about my Ironwoman semi so to get that one is a massive relief going into tomorrow.”
Miller added another gold medal to her haul about 20 minutes later when she teamed with Lara Moses to win the board rescue ahead of Sawtell surprise packets Tahlia Kollen and Lauren Dam, and City of Perth’s Jade Mickle and Jayde Hardstaff.
Surf Boat Race
Lyle Clark and his Currumbin Barbarians are keen to rid themselves of the bridesmaids tag and see the 2105 Australian surfboat championships at Tugun as being their chance to shine.
Four times they have won the silver medals at the Aussies and they want to turn silver into gold.
The Barbarians will be joined in today’s final 12 by fellow Currumbin crew, the Huskals, swept by Matt Wildman.
The Top 12 are: Bulli, Currumbin B, Piha, Sth Curl Curl, Austinmer, Mona Vale, Lorne, Queenscliff, Palm Beach, TitahI Bay, Queenscliff, Anglesea, Palm Beach NSW, Corrimal, Bilgola, Currumbin A.
“A National win is definitely well overdue after collecting silver in 2003 (Michael Brown sweep), 2006, 2007 and 2011,” said Clark.
“After making the semis at the Aussies last season we called it a day but got together again this season and trained on a lesser pressure programme and we have been performing pretty good.”
The Barbarians have good form on the board winning the Ocean Thunder title and also gold medals at the Queensland titles at Alexandra Headland.
“Matt Hickey has been sweeping the Barbarians on the Brisbane River for me and crew members-Glen Williams (stroke), Mac Hamilton, Nick Winkler and Randall Martin- have been doing a lot of private personal training,” said Clark.
Clark, Williams and Martin have been with the Barbarians for a decade while Hamilton has six years and Winkler two seasons.
Sweep Bruce Zillman’s Tugun Hunters are open women’s defending Australian champions and they showed plenty of winning form throughout the knockout races en route to the final. The girls, who said in unison they were all 28, are in red-hot form.
They represented Australia against New Zealand in the Battle of the Ditch for the last two seasons and both times came away with 3-0 series wins.
The crew comprises twins Ann (stroke) and Gen Bassingthwaighte, Sascha Lahey and Lisa Webber. Lisa and Sascha are both proud ‘firemen’ and the twins are cardiac scientists.
Zillman, a builder, said the crew was thankful to Michelle Gaffney who replaced Sascha who had work commitments during the week.
“We had a few interruptions during the season and some weeks were unable to train in the boat so we had to vary our training programme each week.”
Zillman said he was only worried about making the final but was well aware any crew to make the big race on Sunday was capable of winning. For the past six weeks they have been concentrating on more structured training with Clark saying they were training smarter not harder.
Currumbin also has Matt Wildman sweeping the Huscals in the open men’s division who are quietly ‘doing their best’ hope to make the final.
Clark could not name their biggest danger saying he were only worried about their own performance.
Avoca, swept by Matt Mitchell, have had plenty of wins during the season but Mitchell knows there is only the one win that really counts. Avoca were second to host club Collaroy at the NSW Young Guns championships but then put a string of wins together.
They won the ASRL titles at Shellharbour, the Battle of the Boats at Pacific Palms, the open and U19 divisions at the Central Coast branch titles and the Streets Boats six-race series contested by crews from Newcastle and Central Coast branches.
Despite their success Mitchell said he had plenty of respect for top crews from Victoria, NSW and Queensland.
Avoca has already collected 2015 gold being the boat crew when Avoca won the lifesaver relay championship.
Double Ski Race
Aussies gold is a rare commodity at Sorrento Surf Club in WA so it was no wonder there was a party going on when Brett Cassidy and Nick Pond thrust their paddles in the air when they crossed the line to win the under 19 double ski final yesterday.
The club won gold on the beach when Jackson Symonds flashed across the line to win the Australian open beach championship in Scarborough last year. But the water variety is tough to come by.
“This is just the best thing,” said Cassidy, “nine-and-a-half months of training came down to this race and it was tough going, especially when those waves started breaking out on that second bank. “But we are used to this kind of chop back home and as soon as we paddled around that last turning buoy we just headed for home and what a feeling it was to cross that line.”
The boys were swamped by well wishers and club mates who all came in for group hugs with their new found heroes. Silver went to Maroochydore pair Jy Duffy and Joshua Jones-Rew with Trigg Island’s Fergus Morgan and Geordi Tsirigotis taking bronze
Meanwhile Northcliffe’s Olympic kayak gold medallist Murray Stewart combined with Kiwi international Danielle McKenzie to win the mixed double ski from Alexandra Headland pair, emerging kayak star Alyssa Bull and James Porter with Maroochydore’s Nicholas Bolton and Brianna Massie third.
And in one of the most exciting races of the day, Avoca came from behind to beat Currumbin and Northcliffe in the Lifesaver Relay.
Progressive Pointscore: Northcliffe 253 Currumbin 116 Newport 108 Mooloolaba 98 Manly 88 Kurrawa 85 Alexandra Headland 70 Maroochydore 55 City of Perth 53 Collaroy 44.
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