SURF LIFESAVERS CONVERGE ON SCARBOROUGH FOR "THE AUSSIES"
March 2: The cream of the country's surf lifesavers will converge on Scarborough Beach, Western Australia later this month for the 2009 Whereis® Australian Surf Life Saving Championships from March 17-22.
After a busy competitive season, champions from every State and from every discipline from the swimming area to the boats will fight it out for prestigious "Aussies" gold.
Who will be crowned the Champion club and who will take out the prestigious Open Ironman and Ironwoman titles?
Those are just some of the questions to be answered when the six-day gathering of Masters, Inter-State Teams and Open, under 19, under 17 and under 15 competitors comes to a climax on "Finals Sunday" March 22.
Already two clubs - Northcliffe and Manly have shown their cards with outstanding performances at their respective Crazy John's Queensland and All-Phones NSW Championships.
Defending Australian champion club, Northcliffe will be spearheaded by their Ironmen and Ironwomen - notably Pierce Leonard, Zane Holmes and Shannon Eckstein in the men and Courtney and Bonnie Hancock and Kristyl Smith in the women.
Leonard, who won the Australian title at Scarborough in 2007, defeated Kellogg's Nutri-Grain winners from 2008 and 2009 in Eckstein and Holmes to win the Queensland title at Kawana Waters on Sunday.
Hancock won the women's State final ahead of Kurrawa's Hayley Bateup and Smith with Northcliffe dominating the open female events.
Manly, with Kellogg's Nutri-Grain Ironwoman champion Naomi Flood winning seven gold medals and London Olympic kayaker hopeful Murray Stewart, five gold, again toppled Sydney powerhouse Cronulla to win back-to-back NSW pointscores.
The sky blue caps won every open male and female ski event - unprecedented in NSW competition and Holmes knows the Northcliffe juggernaut will not have things all their own way.
"We noticed when we attended the Manly-Freshwater carnivals in January that Murray Stewart was paddling really well and with Naomi in good form and their other ski paddlers they are going to present plenty of opposition," said Holmes, who is chasing his first Australian Open belt title at Scarborough.
Holmes had his first ever stint in a belt race at the Queensland titles and walked away with the gold medal ahead of former Commonwealth Games swimmer Andrew Mewing.
For live results throughout the Whereis® 2009 Australian Surf Life Saving Championships
Photographs: http://www.harvpix.com/