Kiwis settle for second at lifesaving worlds

Australia’s surf prowess proved too much as the New Zealand team had to settle for second at the world lifesaving championships in Germany today.
Hawke’s Bay’s Nikki Cox provided the only highlight on the final day of competition at the Baltic Sea resort of Warnemuende, winning the gold medal in the women’s board race, but Australia cleared out to win by 49 points.
Led by ironman star Shannon Eckstein, who collected four golds, Australia won eight of the 10 events on the final day, recording one of the highest totals in world championship history with 886.
“You’ve got to hand it to Australia – their team did a lot better than they ever have in the past,” New Zealand captain Glenn Anderson said. “We stepped up a couple of levels but so did they – there was a quite a clear gap back to the rest of the world and we’ve just got to close that gap on Australia now.”
There were high hopes New Zealand could arrest the run of three consecutive runner-up finishes to Australia when they held a 56-point lead coming out of the three-day pool rescue competition.
But Australia’s beach stars, nurtured on a diet of weekly professional competition during the Kelloggs Nutrigrain summer series, proved too battle-hardened to displace.
“We did the job in the pool but Aussie came out firing on the beach,” Anderson lamented. “We did everything we could but we just couldn’t hold them off. Luck didn’t go our way at times which was crucial when you’re taking on a team like Australia.”
Luck deserted Kiwi sprint star Ben Willis on the final day, after his historic sprint/flags double yesterday, when he pulled a hamstring during the first leg of the men’s beach relay.
Leading by nine points heading into the final day, New Zealand got an early boost with Cox and Tauranga’s Chelsea Maples finishing first and third in the board.
“It was definitely a bitter-sweet day,” Cox said. “I was pretty disappointed with my ski race yesterday, which I was leading at one stage before getting a bad run in and ending up third, so I had a point to prove in the board.
“We still had some really good races today but we’re pretty disappointed that we didn’t come away with the overall win.”
Cox also picked up silver medals in the women’s taplin and beach relays, while New Plymouth’s Ayla Dunlop-Barrett picked up bronze in the surf race.
The New Zealand men could only manage two bronzes, in the taplin relay and the tube rescue.
Retiring Australian captain Kristy Munroe, who collected three gold medals on the final day, admitted their trans-Tasman rivals had caused huge concern heading into the beach.
“To be more than 56 points behind after the pool champs and then come out and pull ourselves into the lead is so exciting," Munroe said.
“We really felt the pressure when the finals came around today, because there are so many little things that can go wrong and this has been one of the toughest world championships I've been involved in but our guys really took on the challenge.”