Summerstrand defend title at SA Lifesaving Champs | Sport

Summerstrand,
courtesy of their incredible nippers, defended their overall title at the 2022
DHL Lifesaving South Africa National Club Championships in Gqeberha.

Kings Beach and Newton Park played
hosts to the annual elite competitive event of lifesaving and Summerstrand
again maximized being at home, with all their best available to compete.

It is the biggest advantage when
hosting as teams outside of the province don’t always have the funding to send
everyone to the nationals, but credit to Summerstrand’s nippers for backing up
the 2021 effort with one as impressive in 2022 when they again surpassed 1000
competition points in the respective surf and pool competitions.

Umhlanga dominated in the seniors
and juniors surf events, much like Tuks and Harites had done in the pool but it
was Durban Surf’s Melissa Corbett who struck gold in the highly anticipated
senior female Beach Flags showdown against Plett’s 19 year-old South African
international Ellen Kleinsmidt. The veteran Ryle de Morny, as he has done so
often in the past decade, did the Flags and Sprint double for senior males.

Corbett and Kleinsmidt produced one
of the big tussles of the three-day DHL LSA Surf National Club Championships at
Kings Beach in Gqeberha, while De Morny, in the colours of Durban Surf, edged
his long-time rival, friend and team-mate Chevan Clarke in a tense final.

South Africa’s finest lifesaving
talent was on display all week, with the nippers in the surf spotlight for the
first three days and the Newton Park pool for the final three days. The juniors
and seniors started with the pool competition and finished the final three days
delighting the crowd with some stunning races.

Pirates’ Luke Nisbet added the
senior Board gold to his Iron gold, while Umhlanga’s seniors and juniors were
sensational in the three-day surf competition.

Summerstrand’s Nippers, as in 2021,
had no equal in the surf or the pool and combined for over 1000 points to crush
the opposition, with the locals particularly dominant in the pool
championships.

Clifton and Fish Hoek’s were
extremely competitive in the nippers surf championship, with just four points
separating them and they pushed Summerstrand all the way.

Summerstrand
ended the surf championship with 515 points and the two Western Cape
powerhouses Clifton and Fish Hoek tussled for second place, in which less than
four points separated the clubs over three days of competition.

Clifton
would end with 481.5 points and Fish Hoek would tally 478 points.

Fish Hoek, also fielding a stronger
overall contingent after being depleted at the 2021 Championships because of
Covid, were again strong in the juniors, along with Clifton, and the Fish Hoek
seniors, on occasion, rolled back the years of their one-time dominance.

But nothing stopped Umhlanga in the
senior and junior divisions, and, led by Tatum Botha, Saskia Hockly and
Nicolette Challenor, the club topped the gold and silver medal table.

Botha did a unique double in winning
the U19 junior Iron race and an hour later being senior female favourite Amica
de Jager in the senior female Iron race.

Hockly also won golds at u19 and
senior level, doing the double in the single ski and Challenor was the fastest
woman on sand, winning the u19 and senior beach sprint title.

Tuks, earlier in the week, were crowned
overall junior and senior pool champions with 302.50 points, with Harties
second with 284 points and Umhlanga third with 167 points.

The Tuks seniors were in a league of their own, totalling 174
points with Harties and Umhlanga tied for second with 38 points respectively.

Harties, though, showed that the future is bright with a
compelling team victory in the age groups 14-18, scoring 256 points, with Tuks
second (128 points) and Umhlanga second (129 points) and Tuks third (128
points).

Individually, Bloemfontein’s
Douglas-Len Mac Kay was outstanding in the age group 17-18 and his 48 points over
the course of three days was the highest of the competition.

Tuks’s Kendra du Toit was the leading female with 47 points. She
also broke a South African record.

In the gruelling three-day Surfboat
event, Bluewater Bay edged Marine with Pirates taking third place.

Marine’s women battle it out in the gruelling three-day Surf Boat competition. (Photo credit: Anton Grote/LSA)

Supplied

Surf’s individual tournament winners

Seniors:

Female: Amica de Jager (Durban
Surf).

Male: Luke Nisbet (Pirates)

Juniors

U19: female: Tatum Botha (Umhlanga,
33 points/three golds from five events)

U17 female: Tannah Smith (Umhlanga,
36 points/three golds from five events)

U15 female: Georgia Singe (Fish
Hoek, 45 points/four golds from seven events)

U19 male: Christian Davidson
(Summerstrand, 30 points/three golds from four events)

U17 male: Levi Mayes (Fish Hoek, 24
points/three silvers from four events)

U15 male: Wade Beukes (Fish Hoek, 31
points/two golds from five events)

Live
links to all DHL LSA surf and pool events for week, 20th March to 26th March

Masters

Nippers U10

Nippers U12

Nippers U14

Juniors

Seniors

Surf Boats

DHL Lifesaving SA

Supplied Supplied