Lyall Bay defy Tsunami to grab maiden Ocean Athlete win

Lyall Bay took out the Ocean Athlete under-14 national surf lifesaving championships after a dramatic day in Mount Maunganui today.
The final day of the four-day carnival was abandoned after Tsunami warnings, following the massive earthquake in Chile overnight.
Many of the 800 competitors spent the morning huddled out of harm’s way on the nearby flanks of Mauao, until Civil Defence downgraded their warning to an alert.
With local police and patrolling lifeguards clearing the beaches, the event was cancelled around midday, leaving Wellington’s Lyall Bay in first place after the completed three days, their first win in the 10 years the event has been running.
Lyall Bay’s stars were 13-year-olds Gracen Luka and Karly Maxwell, who teamed up to win three gold medals in the board rescue, tube rescue and board relay, although Maxwell was gutted she couldn’t add to her haul.
“I was quite sad because we didn’t get to do our finals, our main races,” Maxwell said. “We had the diamond race, surf race and board race to come today but my dad woke me up and said there was a Tsunami warning first thing this morning so we climbed the hill to watch.
“It’s cool Lyall Bay came first - it would have been nice to do it properly but it’s Gracen's and my last year at this level and it’s our club’s 100th anniversary this year so it’s pretty special.”
Lyall Bay finished on 37 points, well clear of defending champions Papamoa (Bay of Plenty) and neighbours Omanu on 28, with North Harbour’s Red Beach on 27. Local club Mount Maunganui rounded out the top-five with 21.
Surf Life Saving New Zealand sport manager Nathan Hight said it was a blow to organisers on what promised to be a gripping final day in clean 1.5m surf but they had no choice but to call the event off.
“It was a pretty unfortunate call to make but we acted on the advice of Civil Defence and it would have been pretty negligent to act contrary to that advice,” Hight said.
“We’d had regular updates from 3am this morning and their advice was to stay off the beaches for the day - we’re not scientists so we just weren’t in a position to argue with that.”
Hight said SLSNZ and partners Sensor Promotions had decided not to reschedule the event tomorrow or tack it on to the senior national championships in Whakatane in two weeks.
“We looked at the options but nothing was going to work for the majority. It’s a shame because we had three days of probably the best competition we’ve had. The kids got to mix and mingle with the stars and they’re certainly going to remember this event for a long time.”
Yesterday's final events saw the completion of the beach flags competiton, with Sam McNicol grabbing gold in the under-14 event for Hawke's Bay's Ocean Beach Kiwi, Piha's Emily Hodges taking out the under-14 girls and Christy Stuart (Midway) and Jasmin Smith (Wainui) grabbing under-13 boys and girls titles respectively.
Omanu grabbed the 2km beach relay title from Midway and defending champions Papamoa, while Lyall Bay's Ciaran Ryan grabbed his second gold of the carnival in the under-14 tube rescue.
His clubmate Hayley Cox also won two golds, helping the board relay team to a win and also winning the under-13 run-swim-run.