Terrigal Surf Life Saving Club has once again dominated the NSW Pool Rescue Championships over the weekend of July 26 and 27 at the Peninsula Leisure Centre in Woy Woy.
Terrigal Surf Life Saving Club team members
More than 350 competitors from 23 clubs battled it out in the pool, competing in events such as obstacle swims, manikin carries, line throws, medley relays and a simulated emergency response competition. In a big weekend for Central Coast clubs, Terrigal won 43 gold medals while the second placed Umina Surf Life Saving Club won 19. While Terrigal had a lot of talent across the board, some of the senior athletes to really impress were Paul Lemmon, Jack Waddell, Rachelle King and Tim Schofi eld. Terrigal’s director of surf sports Clayton Schofi eld said: “I couldn’t be happier with the team’s results over the weekend. “I think what’s most promising is the fact we had a very strong junior
(12s-15s) component during the Championships. “These kids are the club’s future and there has been a heavy focus on developing our younger athletes and ensuring that they are having a lot of fun along the way. “Some of our senior athletes such as Rachelle
(King) and Jack (Waddell) are fantastic mentors for the juniors and are helping guide them through their early years of competing. “Our juniors are really engaging with the fact that pool rescue competition translates to real life skills on the beach and that’s why I think they prefer Pool Rescue to straight pool swimming,” said Mr Schofi eld. A number of athletes recently selected in the Surf Life Saving NSW Development Squad to tour New Zealand for that country’s Pool Championships next month had the perfect hit out leading into the tour. Indigo Verhoeven
(Umina) was one of the medal winners from the Development Team and will be heading over to New Zealand full of confi dence. Surf Life Saving NSW surf sports manager Shane Knight said: “We had athletes from the Australian Rescue 2014 Squad honing their technique for the upcoming World Championships and many of the senior athletes were more than happy to share their knowledge with other competitors – from Opens all the way down to the U12 athletes competing in their first pool rescue competition.”
Media release, 28 Jul 2014 Matt Miller, Surf Life Saving NSW