Surf sport season off to a flying start

Perfect weather greeted the more than 350 athletes aged from 11 to 60+ who turned out this morning at Sorrento Beach for the 2019 SunSmart WA Endurance Championships.

With the sea breeze coming in just before the final event of the day, the endurance format had age group athletes racing against open age athletes, giving our youth the opportunity to not only win medals in their age group, but also challenge for the open titles.

The first events underway were the 4km and 2km beach runs, with the youth athletes immediately stepping up and showing their class as Ben Johnson (Scarboro)  lapped the field to take the win in both the Open and U17’s while, in one of the performances of the day, Trigg Island’s Joshua Neervoort took 3rd in the Open and the win in the U14 event.

Swanbourne-Nedlands Annie-Marie Juengling led the women’s field home, holding off Lucy Hills (Busselton) who was also the first U17 female across the line while Matilda Banfield, also Swanbourne-Nedlands, took gold in the U15’s and an impressive third in the Open.

Next up was the 2km swim with City of Perth brothers Harry & Charlie Hewitt taking gold and silver respectively, while Charlie also took gold in the U19. Byron Kimber (Trigg Island), unable to hold off the fast finishing City duo, came home with Bronze in the Open & the silver in the U19.

In the youth age groups Jarvis Carin (Trigg Island) took out the U15, followed closely by Johann Szymanski (North Cottesloe) and Harper Davies (Trigg Island). In the U14, Jules Fredonnet (Trigg Island) won gold with clubmates Daniel Beales and Joshua Neervoort finishing with the silver and bronze respectively.

The U17 girls dominated the female swim field, claiming 11 of the top 20 positions and a clean sweep of the podium with Ella Packer (Sorrento) taking a convincing win, and Aysha Ferguson (Trigg Island) and Phoebe Ashworth (Fremantle) closing out the top three.

Alice Harwood (Scarboro), who finished last season in excellent shape with a bronze in the U14 Ironwoman at the WA Championships, continued her winning form taking out the U15 2km Swim in a close race from Mia Nesbit (City of Perth) in 2^nd and Jenna Stummer (Mullaloo) in 3^rd. In the U14’s, Rubie Turner (North Cottesloe) led home Lexi Menin (Fremantle) and Ella Canton from Trigg Island.

The Nipper Gold event saw a fantastic turnout, with 75 U12 and U13 nippers lining up at the start line. The U13’s were the first away with Cottesloe taking the top two podium positions with Jackson Anderson claiming gold and Tex Cross silver, while Brodie Lee (Mullaloo) rounded out the podium with bronze.

The U13 girls showed that they could mix it with the boys, with the top three girls finishing in the top 10 overall. Harriet Chin (Sorrento) had a strong race claiming gold from Luna Harrison (Trigg Island) and Hannah Young (City of Perth).

In the U12 Nipper Gold the girls led the way with Piper Lloyd (Cottesloe) and Elyn Bawden (Trigg Island) coming out of the water in first and second, followed by U12 boys Finn Knox (Scarboro), who got the better of Markus Booth (Sorrento). Next out of the water, and taking bronze in the U12 girls was Secret Harbour’s Kyra Tierney, followed by Mullaloo’s Tom Linehan who took bronze in the U12 boys.

The Surf Ski events saw the Open and U19’s racing a 9km course while the U17 and Masters took on the 6km course.

Trigg Island President and 2019 Western Suns team captain Dan Humble took out the men’s Open title yet again. Thomas Schilperoot (North Cottesloe) stayed with Humble for most of the race but the final km saw Humble motor away for the win. Pat Eley (Trigg Island) continued his strong progress in the craft events taking bronze in the Open as well as gold in the U19’s.

In the Men’s 6km Surf Ski John Lishman (North Cottesloe) led the field home claiming gold in the 45-54. Trigg Island’s Will Savage, the 2019 Open and U17 Ironman champion, was across the line next to claim gold in the U17 Surf ski ahead of Nicholas Dart (North Cottesloe) and Max Hunter (Trigg Island).

In the females, Jazmin Shipway Carr (Trigg Island), fresh from representing Australia at the World Ocean Racing Championships, did the double claiming gold in the Open and U19 Ski while WAIS kayaker Yale Steinepreis (North Cottesloe) recovered from a slow start to claim the silver ahead of 2019 U19 Ironman champion Soraya Lee (Mullaloo).

Former Australian Surf Ski Champ, Natasha Leaversuch led home the field in the 6km Ski Race, claiming gold in the 45-54 age group while in the U17’s Harriet Brown, now racing in the North Cottesloe cap, beat new club mate Sabriel Denehy (North Cottesloe).

While the surf boats took off from Scarboro without the assistance of the sea breeze, it was City of Perth who took out both gold and silver in the Open boats with Mullaloo claiming the bronze.

In the Open Female surfboat, Sorrento claimed gold ahead of City of Perth (silver) and Fremantle (bronze) , with Sorrento Masters crew claiming 4^th in the open to go with the gold they picked up in the Over 160’s.

With the sea breeze finally arriving to make the final event of the day, the Board Race, that little bit more difficult, Pat Eley showed he was up for the challenge and set for a big summer as he took out the Open and U19 titles, with Matt Colliss (City of Perth) claiming silver in the Open and U19s and Will Savage taking bronze in the Open and gold in the U17.

In the U15’s Harper Davies held off club mate Jarvis Caren to claim gold while in the U14’s Jules Fredonnet claimed another gold.

Reining WA Ironwoman champion Ceris Graham (Trigg Island) did enough to claim gold in the Open Female ahead of Soraya Lee with Sophie Turner, sporting a new white cap this season, taking the bronze in the open to go with her gold in the U17’s.

In the U15’s Mikaela Innocent (Trigg Island) beat home Mia Nesbit in 2nd and Sophie Baron Hay in 3rd, both from City of Perth while Rubie Turner (North Cottesloe) took gold in the U14s ahead of Samantha Brigden (Sorrento) sliver and  Hollie Bertolini Bronze (Sorrento).

See the event photo gallery here

Get event results here

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