PLUIMERS ON COURSE FOR IRONWOMAN TITLE DEFENCE

Surf Life Saving Australia, April 17, 2015: DEFENDING champion Liz Pluimers may have finished second in her semi-final yesterday but is showing the form that could take her to a second Open Ironwoman title.

The North Burleigh star dominated the board and swim legs of the semi-final before taking her foot off the gas in the ski and being overtaken by Rebecca Creedy (Northcliffe).

However you can bet Pluimers won’t be backing off in the final if she gets a similar advantage.

Creedy, who won the title at North Kirra in 2012 and has placed in each of the past four finals, also looks like she will play a big role in the decider.

In yesterday’s choppy conditions she found one of the best waves of the day to pass Pluimers on the ski and was happy to have made it safely through to the final.

“The semis never seem to go according to plan,” Creedy said.

“There is nothing better than getting a wave from all the way up the back.

“It was unlucky for Liz that I went straight past her, but she is looking good.

“I had a bad board start but I have my two best legs at the end of the race and that makes a big difference.”

Behind Creedy and Pluimers were Kirsty Higgison (Mooloolaba), Devon Halligan (Northcliffe) and Kristyl Smith (Northcliffe).

Jordan Mercer (Noosa Heads) took out the other semi-final and looks primed to also challenge for gold in the Ironwoman final.

Mercer’s board and ski paddling have been backed up this week with impressive swimming that has been improved under the guidance of Olympian and 1978 Open Surf Race champion Graeme Brewer.

“I’m so happy because it’s never an easy feat to make it through all these rounds,” she said.

“I was so nervous about this semi-final. Reading the draws yesterday, seeing all of these names I knew that at least three Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain ironwomen were going to miss out on making the final in my heat.

“I am so excited to be in the final. I know all the hard work so far has paid off and being in the final is all I wanted.

“It’s a brand new day tomorrow and I hope I can make all my dreams come true.”

Mercer was followed across the line by Karlee Nurthen (Mooloolaba) and Courtney Hancock (Northcliffe), Maddy Dunn (Northcliffe) and Amy Nurthen (Mooloolaba).

Two big names to miss the cut in the competitive second semi-final were 2014 silver medallist Harriet Brown and Nutri-Grain series competitor Tara Coleman.

The draw for the Open Ironwoman final is:

1 Danielle McKenzie (Northcliffe), 2 Brodie Moir (North Burleigh), 3 Tiarrn Raymond, 4 Elizabeth Pluimers, 5 Devon Halligan, 6 Taylar Puskaric (Manly), 7 Jordan Mercer (Noosa Heads), 8 Courtney Hancock, 9 Allira Richardson (Cooks Hill), 10 Kirsty Higgison (Mooloolaba), 11 Karlee Nurthen (Mooloolaba), 12 Amy Nurthen (Mooloolaba), 13 Maddy Dunn (Northcliffe), 14 Rebecca Creedy (Northcliffe), 15 Kristyl Smith (Northcliffe), 16 Georgia Miller (Newport).

The finalists for the Open Men’s Ironman will be decided when the semi-finals are raced first up tomorrow.

AVOCA BEACH CONTINUE GOLDEN RUN IN LIFESAVER RELAY

Avoca Beach took their gold medal tally to three with a stirring victory in the popular Lifesaver Relay.

The team of 15-year-old Bean Jeffries (board), 19-year-old Brad McCloughry (swim), 19-year-old Bianca Mould (sprint), 26-year-old four-time Australian single ski winner Lachlan Tame (ski) and their Under 19 boat crew hung on for a thrilling victory.

They pulled out all stops to hang on after local club Currumbin stormed home with emerging ski paddler Joel McKitterick joining Tame on the final wave before the experienced Tame tagged Mould first to give her enough breathing space to hold off the fast finishing Viking Matt Currie.

Earlier Currumbin board paddler Josh Clouston gave Jackson Maynard a slight lead going into the swim before McCloughry found a wave which Maynard also hopped on.

Tame blasted through the break and opened up a handy lead before McKitterick found a wave to join the champ for the paddle home.

The Vikings, second to Alexandra Headland last year took the silver with Northcliffe the bronze.

Avoca Beach took their gold medal tally to three with a stirring victory in the popular Lifesaver Relay.

Earlier Currumbin board paddler Josh Clouston gave Jackson Maynard a slight lead going into the swim before McCloughry found a wave which Maynard also hopped on.

Tame blasted through the break and opened up a handy lead before McKitterick found a wave to join the champ for the paddle home.

The Vikings, second to Alexandra Headland last year took the silver with Northcliffe the bronze.

CURRUMBIN KEEN TO TURN SILVERS INTO GOLD

LYLE Clark and his Currumbin Barbarians are keen to rid themselves of the bridesmaids tag and see the 2105 Australian surfboat championships at Tugun as being their chance to shine.

Four times they have won the silver medals at the Aussies and they want to turn silver into gold.

“A National win is definitely well overdue after collecting silver in 2003 (Michael Brown sweep), 2006, 2007 and 2011,” said Clark.

“After making the semis at the Aussie last season we called it a day but got together again this season and trained on a lesser pressure programme and we have been performing pretty good.”

The Barbarians have good form on the board winning the Ocean Thunder title and also gold medals at the Queensland titles at Alexandra Headland.

“Matt Hickey has been sweeping the Barbarians on the Brisbane River for me and crew members-Glen Williams (stroke), Mac Hamilton, Nick Winkler and Randall Martin- have been doing a lot of private personal training, said Clark.”

Clark, Williams and Martin have been with the Baabaas for a decade while Hamilton has six years and Winkler two seasons.

For the past six weeks they have been concentrating on more structured training with Clark saying they were training smarter not harder.

Currumbin also has Matt Wildman sweeping the Huscals in the open men’s division who are quietly ‘doing their best’ hope to make the final.

Clark could not name their biggest danger saying he were only worried about their own performance.

Avoca, swept by Matt Mitchell, have had plenty of wins during the season but Mitchell knows there is only the one win that really counts.

Avoca were second to host club Collaroy at the NSW Young Guns championships but then put a string of wins together,

They won the ASRL titles at Shellharbour, the Battle of the Boats at Pacific Palms, the open and U19 divisions at the Central Coast branch titles and the Streets Boats six-race series contested by crews from Newcastle and Central Coast branches.

Despite their success Mitchell said he had plenty of respect for top crews from Victoria, NSW and Queensland.

Avoca has already collected 2015 gold being the boat crew when Avoca won the lifesaver relay championship.

Sweep Bruce Zillman’s Tugun Hunters are open women’s defending Australian champions and they showed plenty of winning form throughout the knockout races en route to the final.

The girls, who said in unison they were all 28, are in red-hot form. They represented Australia against New Zealand in the Battle of the Ditch for the last two seasons and both times came away with 3-0 series wins.

The crew comprises twins Ann (stroke) and Gen Bassingthwaighte, Sascha Lahey and Lisa Webber. Lisa and Sascha are both proud ‘firemen’ and the twins are cardiac scientists.

Zillman, a builder, said the crew was thankful to Michelle Gaffney who replaced Sascha who had work commitments during the week.

“We had a few interruptions during the season and some weeks were unable to train in the boat so we had to vary our training programme each week.”

Zillman said he was only worried about making the final but was well aware any crew to make the big race on Sunday was capable of winning.

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