Stanwell Park Surf Life Saving Cub

The Surf Lifesaving Interbranch Championships were held on 11-12 December at Soldiers Beach on the Central Coast.

Each of the 11 NSW Surf Lifesaving branches entered their best teams to compete against one another. Nine of our Helensburgh Stanwell Park (HSP) competitors were named in the team, two from Coalcliff and the Austi Blue Crew, two of whom are from our area.

The results of the competition were amazing with the Illawarra branch taking out fourth place overall, the best placing yet.

The results are:

Beach
U12 Brett Doran 2nd Flags and 2nd Sprint Coalcliff
U13 Samantha Hammond 1st Flags and 1st Sprint Coalcliff
U13 Adam Thompson 6th Flags and 7th Sprint HSP
U14 Damien Cook 1st Flags and 3rd Sprint HSP
U14 Chenay Mercer 8th Flags and 2nd Sprint HSP
U15 Christopher Astill 1st Flags and 1st Sprint HSP
U17 Amanda Mercer 5th Flags and 6th Sprint HSP
U19 Laura Humphries 1st Flags and 2nd Sprint HSP
U19 Daniel Robberds 2nd Flags and 3rd Sprint HSP

Water
U12 Mikayla Morris 9th Swim, 11th Board, 10th Ironperson, 6th Cameron Relay, 5th Board Rescue
U12 Ryan O’Grady 11th Swim, 5th Board, 6th Ironperson, 6th Cameron Relay, 4th

Board Rescue
Open Boaties 2nd
Lifesaver Relay 1st: Steve Drysdale, Adam Prentice, Jack Paterson, Aaron Greenhalgh, Sebastian James.

All these competitors should be congratulated on their fantastic results with special mention to Samantha Hammond, Christopher Astill and the Austi Blue Crew for being chosen to represent NSW at the Interstate Championships which were held at South Maroubra on 20-21 January.

The NSW combined junior and senior team won the Interstate Championships which has not occurred for a very long time.

The Austi Blue Crew took out the gold in the face of some pretty big surf.

Christopher Astill and Samantha Hammond’s results were just as impressive.

Christopher in the Under 15 age group came first in the beach sprint, second in the flags, first in the Under 15 beach relay team, first in the All Age Relay, first in the Lifesaver Relay and third in the Cameron Relay.

Sam in the Under 13 age group won first place in the beach sprint, first in the flags, first in the All Age Relay, first in the Cameron Relay and first in the Under 13 beach relay team.

Congratulations Austi Blue, Chris and Sam and well done to all the competitors who made it through to this very high level of competition.

Damien Cook and Brooke Dent were named Junior Lifesavers of the Year for Helensburgh Stanwell Park Surf Club and were both among the finalists for Illawarra Junior Lifesaver of the Year. Congratulations.

Julie Humphries