Ballina Information Blog

2004, 2005 and 2006 national champions Northcliffe are setting the pace and lead the overall pointscore after day one of the East Coast Championships at Kurrawa SLSC on Queensland’s Gold Coast, where the Lennox Head-Alstonville club’s great season continued today.

Team events were the focus of the opening day, with Queensland’s numbers far outweighing their NSW counterparts with small teams from south of the border concentrating more on tomorrow’s individual events.

Australian and World Ski Champion Tate Smith picked up four gold in the Double Ski (with Nick Crilly), Mixed Double Ski (with Hayley Bateup) and as a member of Northcliffe Ski Relay and Taplin Relay teams. Shannon Eckstein (Northcliffe) also collected four gold in the Surf Teams and Board, Ski and Taplin Relays.

Northcliffe dominated the Open age group, winning 10 of the 12 gold medals on offer, providing the backbone to the club’s overall pointscore lead after day one. The defending East Coast Champions lead on 160 points from arch rivals North Burleigh (132) and Mooloolaba (111). Lennox Head-Alstonville (32) are the leading NSW club in seventh place, on the back of their star performers in the U13 and U14 age groups.

Notable performances from NSW athletes on day one included:

U13 Male Board Relay: 1st Lennox Head-Alstonville (Ben Harper, Michael Barnett, Oliver Hulbert)

U13 Male Cameron Relay: 1st Lennox Head-Alstonville (Ben Harper, Jacob Wilson, Michael Barnett, Oliver Hulbert)

U14 Male Surf Teams: 1st Lennox Head-Alstonville (Hayden Thomas, Michael Barnett, Nathan Diehm, Oliver Hulbert)

U14 Male Board Relay: 1st Woolgoolga (Levi Sands, Nathan Stubbs, Thomas Penny); 3rd: Lennox Head-Alstonville (Hayden Thomas, Michael Barnett, Nathan Diehm)

U14 Male Cameron Relay: 2nd Lennox Head-Alstonville (Hayden Thomas, Michael Barnett, Nathan Diehm, Oliver Hulbert)

U15 Female Cameron Relay: 3rd Terrigal (Amy Nurthen, Emily Hudson, Kareena Lee, Tegan Perkins)

U17 Male Board Relay: 1st Terrigal (Adam House, Guy Schofield, Tim Schofield); 2nd Avoca Beach: (Aaron Benson, Dean Mackay, Liam Jackson)

U17 Male Surf Teams: 2nd Terrigal (Adam House, Guy Schofield, Jacob Marks, Tim Schofield)

U19 Female Board Relay: 2nd Sawtell (Bonnie Hancock, Kayla Russell, Courtney Hancock)

U19 Female Taplin Relay: 3rd Sawtell (Bonnie Hancock, Kayla Russell, Courtney Hancock)

U19 Male Board Relay: 1st Wanda (Hayden Allum, Michael Fox, Nicholas Fox); 3rd Coffs Harbour (Aaron Beavis, Joel Beavis, Matthew Chase)

U19 Male Double Ski: 2nd Ben Lawrence/Pat Norton (Byron Bay)

U19 Male Surf Teams: 2nd Redhead (James Taylor, Mitchell Crow, Mitchell Thompson, Stewart McLachlan)

U19 Male Taplin Relay: 1st Redhead (Mitchell Crow, Mitchell Thompson, Stewart McLachlan); 2nd Wanda (Hayden Allum, Michael Fox, Nicholas Fox)

Open Male Ski Relay: 3rd Byron Bay (Anthony Barchard, Dru Baggaley, Pat Norton)

Competitors will continue to vie for $65,000 in prizemoney tomorrow, with events including the Ironman and Ironwoman as well as Surf Boat and IRB (rubber duckie) racing. The top competitors from each state will then be selected in the NSW and Queensland teams, with the team captains announced by surf sports legend Karla Gilbert.

Tomorrow’s events kick off with the prestigious Ironman and Ironwoman at Kurrawa SLSC at 8:00am.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 2nd, 2007 at 5:33 pm and is filed under Alstonville, Ballina, Lennox Head, News, Sport. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.