Orewa take out the Paul Kent and Masters Trophy for a second year in a row

An impressive number of pool records have been broken at the annual Surf Life Saving New Zealand (SLSNZ) Pool Rescue Championships, held this weekend in Auckland.

The records were broken across the junior, senior and masters divisions over the three-days of competition, showing how committed and fit the competitors are at all levels of the sport.

The winning club was Orewa Surf Life Saving Club (SLSC) who dominated the event and took the top spot with a total of 273 points scored across the junior, open and masters  divisions and were awarded both the Paul Kent (Juniors/Open) and Masters trophies.

Orewa SLSC coach, Zac Franich, said: “We’re blown away with how our athletes performed this weekend. It sounds cliché, but it really was a team effort, spearheaded by some incredible performances from our juniors.

“We had points across all age groups which is a credit to our development and puts us in a really good space moving forward,” he added.

Finishing the event in second after a close battle for the Paul Kent Trophy was Mt Maunganui who ended the three-day carnival on 172.5 points, 53.5 points ahead of their closest rivals, Piha in third with 119 points.

Event Manager, Mike Lord said the event had been a great success, highlighted by the positive vibe and record-breaking trend of the competitors.

“The buzz around the event has just been fantastic this year, and that may have been buoyed by the sheer number of records that were broken over the weekend. It was no easy feat so congratulations to all the athletes who broke a record, and in fact, all those that set personal-bests too because there was also a lot of those.

Surf Life Saving New Zealand also announced the team to attend The German Cup, held in Warendorf, Germany on November 23/24 and the Orange Cup held in Eindhoven, Netherlands on November 30/December 1.

The purpose of sending a team to these events is to help prepare our High Performance pool swimmers towards the 2020 & 2022 World Championships.

The SLSNZ selection committee have selected these swimmers based on their performances over the last 12 months.

NZ Team to attend the German & Orange Cup events:

Libby Bradley (Mount Maunganui Lifeguard Service)

Madison Kidd (Whangamata Surf Life Saving Club)

Lucy Makaea (Piha Surf Life Saving Club)

Natalie Peat (Papamoa Surf Life Saving Club)

Sasha Reid (Fitzroy Surf Life Saving Club)

Levi Ata (Piha Surf Life Saving Club)

Chris Dawson (Midway Surf Life Saving Club)

Steve Kent (Titahi Bay Surf Life Saving Club)

Oscar Williams (Piha Surf Life Saving Club)

The Team Management is Daniel Grant & Steven Kent

The SLSNZ Selection Committee will also be announcing additions to the High Performance National Squads in the next week.

Surf Life Saving New Zealand Pool Rescue Championships 2019 results:

For a list of the records broken, click here. 

Stay up to date with the latest news from SLSNZ on the Surf Life Saving New Zealand Facebook page.

Mike Lord

Sport Development Officer

T: 03 384 4902

M: 027 457 1025

E: Mike.lord@surflifesaving.org.nz