Great Performances at the NT Surf Life Saving Championships

The 2009 Westpac Junior Surf Life Saving Championships and the Perkins Shipping Senior Surf Life Saving Championships, hosted by the Gove Peninsula Surf Life Saving Club on Saturday and Sunday, 26th & 27th September 2009 in Nhulunbuy, saw 176 competitors from the Gove Peninsula, Darwin, Mindil Beach, Broome and Walngawu Djakamirri Surf Life Saving Clubs compete in over 120 events. 

On Saturday, the Senior Championships kicked off with surfboat racing with Broome winning the Open Womens surfboat while Gove, coached by veteran sweep Charles Rue, smashed the opposition with a powerful Open Mens crew and backed up to win the surfboat relay. 

The U15 female events were dominated by Gove’s Maddi Reid and Gabby Parsons while the male events were a clean sweep for Darwin’s Robert Gerlach.  In the U17 events Sam Putland (Gove) won every event, including the ironman while clubmates Emma Whelan and Maria McGill took care of the female events but there were no gold medals for Gove in the U19 division where Broome’s David Aristei and Darwin’s Megan Gallagher were dominant.  Both have improved enormously in the last 12 months and have developed into multi-skilled athletes with superb skills in surf swimming, board and ski paddling.

In the Open Mens events talented Darwin swimmer Josh Mitchener won the Surf Race, Darwin’s Ross Peasnell won a hotly contested ski race while Joshua Edwards took out the beach sprint and beach flags events. Gove fought back when a super-fit Alan Cross won the board race.  Outstanding Broome lifesaver Carrie Selten won the Open Womens board and ski races as well as the beach flags and beach sprint events but couldn’t catch Megan Gallagher in the swim. Gallagher went on to also win the grueling ironwoman race, a remarkable effort considering she doubled her workload by competing in her U19 age category as well as Open events.

Masters competition continues to grow in NT surf lifesaving and all events were strongly contested. Darwin competitor Ross Peasnell, recently transferred from the Anglesea SLSC in Victoria, was unbeatable in the ski race despite the best efforts of Charles Rue (Gove) and Tony Snelling (Mindil Beach) who picked up the silver and bronze medals.  In the female masters events Adrienne Willing (Gove) was too good in both beach events, Moira Wigley (Mindil Beach) won the swim and board races and Darwin President, Helen Gould, snatched gold in the ski race.

The senior ironman race capped off a great day for the host club when Gove’s Alan Cross defeated Darwin Surf Club’s Sam Creek and Dale Frew.  The three athletes were shoulder to shoulder in the swim and surf ski legs of the race and threw themselves back into the water for the board paddle with less than 5m separating them.  In the closing stages of the board leg Cross opened up a few precious metres to take the lead the pack into the beach, it was just enough to hold off Creek and Frew in the 100m soft sand run to the finish much to the delight of the home crowd.

The overall club points score for the senior championships was Gove Peninsula SLSC - 639 points,  Darwin SLSC - 556 pts, Broome SLSC - 145 points, Mindil Beach SLSC - 130 points and Walngawu Djakamirri SLSC - 12 points. 

On Sunday strong south easterly winds pushed up a consistent surf break and a northerly inshore current but this didn’t deter over 80 junior lifesavers in their age divisions from U8 to U14.  Each age division contested the beach sprint, beach flags, board race and surf swim while the U11-U14s also competed in the ironman races.