Surf lifesaving's Big Show hits Mount Maunganui's Main Beach
this week as the Lion Foundation NZ Surf League comes to town.
The annual provincial teams competition has a change in format
this year, with the under-14 and under-16 teams joining the
carnival, competing on Thursday and Friday.
All eight surf lifesaving provinces will be represented, while
two teams from New South Wales will join the fray during the open
and under-19 events on Saturday and Sunday.
Bay of Plenty are the defending under-19 champions, aiming for
their third successive win, while the Bay open team finished third
last year.
Papamoa teenager Natalie Peat and Mount Maunganui's IRB-racing
siblings Chad and Kirby Wheeler will be the busiest athletes on the
beach, racing for both under-19 and open teams, while 16-year-old
Jess Miller was also do race the open run-swim-run.
Miller and Peat get their chances in the open arena after Aimee
Berridge was called into the lucrative Kellogg's Nutrigrain Ironman
series in Australia this weekend.
Of the other provinces, Gisborne have rebuilt the best after
last year's disastrous sixth-placing, recruiting Taranaki IRB gun
Jaron Mumby and Australian representatives Laura Shorter and Devon
Halligan.
Both beach sprinter Shorter and Halligan - the daughter of
former Kiwis rugby league player Daryl - have New Zealand passports
but were born and raised across the Tasman.
Otago returns to competition after missing last year, bolstered
by siblings Carla and Stephanie Laughton and IRB guns Michael and
Sam Kinraid.
Swimmer Adam Simpson has been training at the Mount for much of
the summer, while Joe Kemp and Tamsyn McGarva will be dark horses
in the sprint arena.
Auckland have plenty of experience and talent to call on, with
board and ski specialist Kevin Morrison lining up for his 11th Surf
League campaign and Chris Moors returning as national ironman
champion. Mairangi Bay schoolgirl Danielle McKenzie has been in
outstanding form during the Sonic Surf race series, while Maddie
Boon and Rachel Clarke are both accomplished ironwomen.
National beach flags champion Chanel Hickman has also been
recruited from Canterbury after joining Mairangi Bay this
season.
Taranaki are seeking a fourth consecutive title, with New
Zealand captain Glenn Anderson looking to continue a remarkable
streak. He's been involved in teams that have won the last
five Surf League titles - the last three with Taranaki, as well as
2007 with Gisborne and 2008 with Bay of Plenty. Taranaki will
also lean heavily on their prodigious IRB crew of Andrew Cronin and
James Moorwood, as well as world champion beach sprinter Paul
Cracroft-Wilson, swim star Ayla Dunlop-Barrett and national ski
champion Dan Nelson.
Bay of Plenty have also picked teenaged sprint star Kodi Harman,
who recently won the New Zealand Schools 100-200m athletics double,
while teenaged siblings Kirby and Chad Wheeler make their open
debut in the IRBs. National board race champion Andrew Newton
and Gold Coast-based ironman Max Beattie have plenty to prove with
New Zealand team selections looming.
Wellington's ranks have been swollen by young stars like Kayla
Imrie and Tyler Maxwell, while Richard Whinham and Brent Harvey
complete the capital's IRB crew.
Canterbury's key member is once again triple world beach flags
champion Morgan Foster. The 36-year-old, who has been competing at
this level for the best part of two decades, showed his
effervescent form by winning the flags title at the Eastern
Regional championships last month, beating long-time rival
Cracroft-Wilson in the final. Ski paddler Steven Drabble will
also be tough to haul in in his favoured event.
Hawke's Bay were second last year in a consummate team
performance and boast the brilliance of ironwoman Nikki Cox and
five-time New Zealand ironman champion Daniel Moodie. Moodie
missed the Surf League last year with injury and has taken time out
from the sport since but his wave nous and technical skills make
him a danger to the entire ironman field. Ski paddler Scott
Bicknell and rising IRB stars Mike Harman and Ben Cross should also
provide a steady stream of points.
Two teams from New South Wales will also compete, with an
under-21 side racing in the open arena and an under-19 side taking
on the New Zealand provinces in that division. Talented surf
swimmer Mitchell Fagerstrom and sprinter Katie Williams - the
under-19 Australian flags and sprint title holder - bolster the
team.
The fast-paced weekend event will feature 17 events a day, with
under-19 athletes competing on Mount Maunganui's Main Beach in the
morning and senior athletes doing battle in the afternoon.
Bay of Plenty's Arna Wright leads
the charge into the water during the board race at last year's
Lion Foundation NZ Surf League.
Photo by Mark Dwyer/Lava Media.
