Hickman picks up first Kiwi gold

Beach sprinter Chanel Hickman picked up New Zealand's first gold at the Australian surf lifesaving championships on the Gold Coast today.

The Australian-based Kiwi helped her Kurrawa club win the open women's beach relay, combining with Melissa Howard, Tegan Maffescioni and Kelly McDonnell to head off Cronulla and City of Perth.

Kurrawa's men's team - featuring Kiwis Paul Cracroft-Wilson and Morgan Foster - also made the final but could only finish eighth.

The championships resumed at North Kirra Beach today after the drowning of Maroochydore 14-year-old Matt Barclay on Wednesday.

Much of the day was spent catching up on the massive backlog of heats, with more than 7000 athletes competing.

Notable New Zealand results included Papamoa's under-17 surf race team of Natalie Peat, Kathryn Stewart, Michaela Aitken and Ariana Moffart, who finished sixth in their final, while the Papamoa under-15 boys - Daniel Edwards, Justin Pickering, Jake Cowdrey and Mason Bryant - were eighth.

Stewart won her board race heat and Peat was second in hers to both progress, while Michael Bryant and Mat Steward (under-17 ski) and Mason Bryant (under-15 surf race and tube rescue) also progressed.

Mount Maunganui athletes also performed well, with under-19 athletes Karina Radley and Cara Ryan stepping up in the open double ski division and winning their heat, then both progressing in the under-19 single ski heats.

Cameron Witney, Sam Shergold and Andrew Roy also won through to the final of the under-19 ski relay final.

Orewa's Jack Wilson qualified through to the under-19 mens ski quarter final and Nicole Rosewarne into the under-17 tube race semi final.

Many of the Kiwi athletes have done very well today, for all the latest results visit the SLSA live results here - http://aussiesresults.sls.com.au/