State titles
Nippers, Masters, Youth and Open Beach State Titles.
Saturday 4th March 2023 – Nippers, Masters, Youth and Open Beach State Titles.
The scene was set for a fabulous day of competition at Trigg in the SLSWA Beach state titles, weather was sunny, slight south westerly, nice and fresh, perfect day for it, a welcome relief from previous days.
All age groups competing in all things beach.
First up for the day were the Nippers, where we fielded some 43 Nippers, hungry and raring to go across all age groups from U10 – U13’s. First event of the day was the 1km run, all age groups represented and all important club points were gained in U13 Male by Khye Reid and U10 Females by Arabella Hibbs.
Next up came the beach sprints, with 7 Nippers competing across all age groups after successfully getting through qualifiers, with Scarlett Callaghan taking home a Bronze medal in the U13 Female category and Arabella Hibbs (U10F), Indiana Stephenson and Anzu Haywood (U11F) just missing out on medals in a very strong field, but earning valuable points for the Club.
Beach relays followed on from the sprints, U11 Female team finished 5th (Anzu Haywood, Ada Heaton, Indi Saunders, Indiana Stephenson) U12 Male team, (Arthur Ketteringham, David Ariano, Toby Kimber and Seth Miller) just got pipped to the post finishing a very respectable 4th, and the U13 Female team (Scarlett Callaghan, Aoife Dunne, Grace Kenny, Maya Liesis) won Bronze!
Final fun for the morning in the flag arena – Indiana Stephenson (U11Girls) cleaned up with Gold! Toby Kimber had a stunning morning and took home Silver in U12 boys category.
All Nippers represented the club with pride, it was a privilege to watch, there is certainly some talent coming through the ranks that we should all watch out for in years to come! Well done all! Proud of you!
Following on from the Nippers came the great Sages of Mullaloo – The Masters – We may be small in number, 18 all up – but we represented in fabulous form for the pride we hold for our club.
First events of the day – Beach Sprint, and what a presence we held on the track, Linda Holland, Ian Plummer, Alistair Cook , Helen Gigney taking out Gold, Jude Harlow, Graham Deans – Silver, Emma Bamforth, Tanya Honor, Paul Bennett cleaning up with Bronze. Absolutely outstanding!
Then came the Beach Sprint Relays – Patricia Butler, Brenda Campbell, Raquel De Souza and Linda Holland put out an incredible performance in the 170 Female category, taking home a very well deserved Bronze! Up next were the Mens 170 Sprint Relays – once again with Alistair Cook, Jamie Gilbert, Stu Ketteringham and Ian Plummer also taking Bronze amongst very fierce competition. Next team through were the 200 Females with Helen Gigney, Emma Bamforth, Jude Harlow and Tanya Honor fighting to the bitter end and taking home a Silver! A nail biting race for sure – very exciting!! Finally – the gentlemen of Mullaloo – putting on an incredible show in the 230 category – Paul Bennett, Graham Deans, Martin Kennedy and Ric Stephenson, although injured, made their way to the start line and ran a fantastic relay – finishing 3rd and also taking home Bronze.
Beach flags – I am very pleased to announce that no one got injured, during flags anyway, and the Masters of Mullaloo live to fight another day – but another medal haul from the pits came from amazing performances from the following:
Linda Holland – Gold
Tanya Honor – Bronze
Alistair Cook – Gold
Patricia Butler – Bronze
Ian Plummer – Silver
Jude Harlow – Gold
Helen Gigney – Silver
Martin Kennedy – Silver
Paul Bennett – Gold
Graham Deans – Silver
Ric Stephenson – Bronze
Kay Smith represented across the board and performed incredibly – but unfortunately all her competition were too afraid to come and play, so she had to drop down a few age categories, but what a performance – Points all over the place!!! Well done Kay – an absolute inspiration to us all!!
Finally the mighty Masters set about the 1K and 2K beach runs accordingly in the peak of the midday sun – 1K – Kay Smith taking out Bronze, Martin Kennedy – Gold, Paul Bennett – Bronze, Ric Stephenson – Bronze.
2Km run – Linda Holland – Gold , Raquel De Souza – Bronze, Brenda Campbell – Silver, Kirsten Dobson – Silver, Helen Gigney – Silver.
It was my absolute pleasure to be part of it all again this year, the medal haul and points count set up the club for what started as an amazing assault on the Points front for the overall Masters competition leading the way in to the Water competition on Monday 6th March.
Last but not least for the day of competition were our Youth and Opens, a team some 17 strong set about the sand. It was 14:30 in the afternoon before their first events got underway – and as always they served the club and themselves with pride.
True to the running order of the day – Beach Sprints got underway first with Aaron Gigney taking 4th Place in an extremely competitive field in the Mens Open, and Mitch Eady finishing 6th – Incredible performances earning well deserved points for the club.
U14 Female sprints saw Mia Smith finishing 5th out of a field of 27, U14 Male sprints – Bryce Lyons also finished 5th out of a field of 22 to take home valuable points.
U15 Female sprints – Abby Plummer finished 5th out of field of 25
U17 Male – Jon Eady – just missed out on points in a very strong field of 29 athletes.
U19 Male – Mitch Eady was back to business and cleaning up with Gold!
Awesome performances all round!!
Beach Relays – just as exciting as all the others throughout the day, Male Open – Isaac Crothers, Jon Eady, Mitch Eady and Aaron Gigney just pipped to the post and took out 4th place.
Flags – always a spectacular performance and a sight to behold, and this was no different – Open Male Beach Flags – Mitch Eady finished a very respectable 5th in a fleet of revered company, if you have never had the privilege of watching the open flags, put it on your bucket list, incredible!
U14 Female Flags – Genevieve Crockett and Mia Smith finished a very respectable 5th and 6th Place respectively and Hayley Cavanagh 9th out of a field of 19 strong – well done girls!
U14 Male Flags – Taiyo Findley took home Bronze – awesome job, with Bryce Lyons, Finn Barret and Tom Cheeseman making final 16. Great work boys!
U15 Female Flags – Abby Plummer – finished 6th and Zoe Tinniswood, Isabelle Mahon finishing 11th and 15th respectively.
U17 Male Flags – Sam Leeks – out of his boat and back on land – grabbing Bronze! Fantastic job!
U19 Male Flags – He was back to business again – Mitch Eady – cleaning up taking out GOLD!!! A pleasure to behold.
Final wrap of the day was the 2km run, which by this time it was getting dark – however this didn’t stop the team ripping in to it, Hayley Cavanagh finished 5th in U14 Females, Zoe Tinniswood 5th in U15 Female and last but not least, Lachy Bean finished 7th In U17 Male.
Unfortunately the light failed us and time got away so the Mixed Open Beach relays had to be scratched – but there’s always next year..
Well done to everyone who competed at the beach states across all categories – hold your heads high – you competed with pride, dignity, integrity and above all – Passion!
Final huge shout out to the officials, most of whom spent some 13 hours on the beach – without them, none of this would be possible, Marni Black, Clare Ketteringham, Jesper Rasmussen, Graham Deans and Jeff Davidson. (and of course Sandy Clarke in her other capacity) – also thanks to Jeff for his expert coaching skills throughout the season, really appreciated by us all!
Onwards and upwards – enjoy the rest of the competition season.
Photographs from the event.