Six athletes from Broadstairs Surf Lifesaving Club made the 600 mile round trip to Holywell Bay in Cornwall this month for the 2017 National Surf Lifesaving Championships – coming home with a clutch of medals.
The annual competition, involving 1,000 competitors from 32 clubs, is made up of a series of land and water-based races showcasing core life saving skills such as sea swimming, board paddling and soft sand running.
Despite tough competition, mixed weather conditions and some of the water events taking place in 3-4ft of surf -much more than club members are used to when training on Viking Bay – Louise Tomlinson, competing for the first time in the Masters had a flying start bringing home a bronze medal for the 80m soft sand sprint in the first race of the competition and then finishing up with a silver medal for Beach Flags.
The four members of the Youth Team: Josh Crottie, Oscar Keyworth, Zack Rothman and Tom Walton were the furthest travelled youth team and faced tough local competition. They all fared well in their events with Zack and Josh both getting 6th place in the Soft Sand Sprints for their age groups and Zack pairing up with teammate Oscar to get 7th place in the Tube Rescue.
Newcomers Josh and Tom brought home more medals with Tom getting silver in the Soft Sand Sprints and Josh winning gold for the Beach Flags.
Broadstairs Surf Lifesaving Club is based on Viking Bay and offers lifeguard training as well as surf sport coaching. For more information on the club, lifesaving sport and surf lifeguard training visit www.broadstairsslsc.co.uk
Report Clare Warren