Aussies 2019 | WA youth athletes show strength on the sand

The 2019 Australian Youth Surf Life Saving Championships, held the weekend of 30 – 31 March 2019 at North Burleigh, Queensland, saw over 45 young WA athletes from 11 clubs step up with some impressive performances. With rough, challenging ocean conditions, WA’s best results came on the sand.

Day 1 kicked off with the U14 Female Beach Sprints, where we saw Floreat’s Lucy Hills fly through the rounds, taking 1^st in her semi-final before going on to secure the bronze while, after an impressive performance, City of Bunbury’s James Kiely also took bronze in the U14 Male Beach Sprint. Special mention to Imogen Herrington who placed 4^th in the U15 Female Beach Sprint.

Day 2 started strongly in the beach arena, with WA athletes taking to the podium in the first three events of the day. Riley Somers from Scarboro was first off the mark with silver in the U14 Male 2km Beach Run, while James Kiely, looking to add to his medal from the previous day, narrowly missed the bronze taking 4th in the event.  Next up was Nyah Gray, from Trigg Island, who snatched bronze in her U14 Female 2km Beach Run, while Sorrento’s Joseph Crowly continued WA’s streak in the 2km Beach Run, stepping up to take gold in the U15 Male event.

Later in the day, athletes moved on to the beach flag events where we saw an outstanding performance by Cottesloe’s Jayden Evans, taking gold in the U14 Male event in an extremely close finish which had the commentators guessing, followed by Sorrento’s Sienna Algeri with bronze in the U15 Female event.

Jayden Evens, Gold in the U14 Male Beach Flags – Photo credit: Cottesloe SLSC

Congratulations also to a number of our athletes who made the finals of their events, including Kari Marchetto (Trigg Island) and Declan Cook (Sorrento) in the U15 Surf Swim event; Jarvis Caron (Trigg Island) in the U14 Male Board Race; Mikaela Innocent (Trigg Island) in the U14 Female Board Race; Alice Harwood (Scarboro) in the U14 Female Surf Swim; Sophie Baron-Hay (City of Perth) in the U15 Surf Race; Holly Fraser (City of Perth) in the U14 Female Beach Flags; Alexandra Slocombe (City of Perth) in the U15 Female Surf Swim; Liam Foley and Harper Davies (Trigg Island) in the U14 Swim Race; Daniel Mann (Quinns-Mindarie) in the U15 Male Beach Flags & U15 Male Beach Relay, (alongside the Quinns Mindarie team); Archie Davis (Fremantle) in the Under 15 Male Surf Race.

Congratulations to all our youth athletes and their support crews who made the trip east to compete.

Full event results found here

2019 Aussies WA youth medallists are below:

Gold 

• Jayden Evans – Cottesloe SLSC – U14 Male Beach Flags
• Joseph Crowley – Sorrento SLSC – U15 Male 2km Beach Run

Silver 

• Riley Somers – Scarboro SLSC – U14 Male 2km Beach Run

Bronze 

• James Kiely – City of Bunury SLSC – U14 Male Beach Sprint
• Nyah Gray – Trigg Island SLSC – U14 Female 2km Beach Run
• Lucy Hills – Floreat SLSC – U14 Female Beach Sprint
• Sienna Algeri – Sorrento SLSC – U15 Female Beach Flags